One lucky person from Oregon won this past weekend’s massive lottery prize, but not before a lengthy delay.
Saturday night’s $1.3 billion dollar drawing was delayed until the overnight hours of Sunday morning, but the huge prize will be taken home by someone in the Beaver State after it was purchased in Portland, KATU reported.
The winner had not come forward as of Monday morning but has 60 days to do so from Sunday if they want to collect their money.
However, prior to the life-altering drawing, Oregon’s lottery website informed interested parties that the planned late-night drawing had been delayed.
“The Powerball drawing scheduled for 10:59 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 6 has been delayed,” a message the website said.
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#BREAKING Powerball delays tonight’s drawing for $1.3 billion jackpot due to technical issues. pic.twitter.com/lhqo5LbSTS
— Breaking News (@TheNewsTrending) April 7, 2024
The message continued, “Tonight, we have one participating lottery that needs additional time to complete required pre-draw procedures, which have been enacted to protect the security and integrity of the Powerball game.
“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn.”
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The Oregon lottery website said the delay was ultimately “to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win.”
The drawing was finally held at 2:30 a.m. and produced a winner after millions of Americans struck out amid a stretch of 41 consecutive drawings.
According to the New York Post, the winning numbers were 22, 27, 44, 52, and 69 with a Powerball number of 9.
The person with those winning numbers must be identified according to Oregon state law, so any hopes of anonymity will be dashed.
Still, the soon-to-be-named winner will have a consultation prize of $621.1 million if they decide to take the lump sum payout. The person could also stretch out 29 years’ worth of regular payouts.
According to the Associated Press, this past weekend’s winning lottery was the eighth-largest in U.S. lottery history.
The odds of purchasing the winning ticket were estimated at one in 292.2 million.
The Weekly Powerball is played in 45 states, two U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C.
Sunday’s early morning drawing was not the first time a massive prize drawing had been delayed.
As USA Today noted, a November 2022 drawing that was worth $2.04 billion was delayed by 10 hours and was won by a man named Edwin Castro of California, who took a lump sum payment of $997.6 million after taxes.
That drawing was delayed because of a “participating lottery needing more time to complete the required security protocols,” according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
For those who struggle to resist the appeal of the lottery in spite of the astronomical odds against winning, contact the National Council on Problem Gambling or Gamblers Anonymous.
