A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3bn on Sunday, ending a streak of more than three months without a winner.
The single ticket – revealed after a delay of more than three hours to the drawing – matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326bn, Powerball said in a statement.
The lottery ticket was purchased at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in the north-east part of the city, Oregon Lottery said in a statement.
Oregon Lottery is working with the person in a process that involves security measures and vetting that will take time before a winner is announced.
“This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery,” Oregon Lottery director Mike Wells said in the statement. “We’re taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money.”
The jackpot has a cash value of $621m if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
The winning numbers drawn early on Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.
“I want to congratulate the winner on this life-changing moment, Wells said in a statement. “No one in Oregon has ever won a prize on this scale, and it’s a very exciting for our staff and players.”
The Plaid Pantry president and CEO, Jonathan Polonsky, said in the statement: “Plaid Pantry is thrilled to learn that one of our 104 Oregon stores sold the $1.3bn Powerball ticket.”
Previously, the largest Powerball prize won in Oregon was a $340m jackpot in 2005. The last Powerball jackpot win in Oregon was $150.4m claimed by a Salem man in 2018.
Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.
The $1.326bn prize ranks as the eighth-largest in US lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales, which can increase the chance that jackpots will be shared among multiple winners.
The odds of winning the top prize are one in 292.2m.
Saturday night’s scheduled drawing was held up and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2.30am on Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10.59pm, Powerball said in a statement.
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Powerball officials didn’t immediately say where the verification issue occurred.
It’s the second time a delay has occurred in the drawing for a huge Powerball jackpot in the past 17 months.
In November 2022, the Powerball drawing for a record $2.04bn, won by a single ticket sold in southern California, was pushed back by nearly 10 hours. The Minnesota Lottery announced later that there was a technical issue with its two-tiered verification process, which is operated by outside vendors.