$2B Jackpot-Winning Powerball Ticket Sold In CA

CONNECTICUT — Lottery officials have confirmed Tuesday that a winning Powerball ticket was sold in California for Monday's record-setting jackpot, which topped out at more than $2 billion.

"California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire!," the California Lottery tweeted Tuesday. "One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw. The final jackpot amount for this draw came to $2.04 BILLION dollars."

It is a lot of money, the biggest prize ever in lottery history. The numbers were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with a Powerball of 10.

Players had to wait nearly 10 hours until Tuesday morning to check their tickets after “technical difficulties,” lottery officials said. When ticket sales had finally been calculated, the jackpot, originally estimated at $1.9 billion, had swelled to $2.04 billion.

The frenzied pace of ticket-buying didn’t “break” Powerball Monday night. Rather, game officials said the delay came after one of the participating state lotteries was unable to process its sales data.

“Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to submit their sales and play data prior to the winning numbers being selected,” the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a statement. The organization declined to say in which state the delay occurred.

A Powerball ticket costs $2. For an additional $1 per ticket, players can multiply non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times with the Power Play feature. One caveat: The 10X multiplier is only available when the advertised jackpot annuity is $150 million or less.

To win the jackpot, a player must match all white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. Lottery officials say chances are higher when players don’t choose their own numbers. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years were picked by a computer.

In Connecticut, 141,447 "winning" tickets were sold for what became the Nov. 8 Powerball drawing. Here is a breakdown of those winning tickets:

• 4, $50,000 winners
• 110, $200 winners
• 202, $100 winners
• everyone else won between $4 and $14

Connecticut has been home to nine jackpot winners over the 30-year history of the game.

Drawings are held three times a week, at 10:59 p.m. EST on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

With Patch Editor Renee Schiavone