Watertown Did Not Sell Winning $758.7 Million Powerball Ticket

WATERTOWN, MA — The lone $758.7 million winning ticket was sold in Massachusetts. But the people who got their hopes up in Watertown were let down by the Massachusetts State Lottery Thursday morning. While the Handy Convenience Store on Common Street did end up selling a $1 million winning ticket, the historic record setting-winning ticket was actually sold on the other side of the state in Chicopee.

The Pride Station & Store on Montgomery Street in Chicopee sold the winning $758.7 million ticket, the State Lottery said in a release prefaced by "CORRECTION" shortly after 8 a.m. The Lottery has sent out a release about seven hours earlier saying the ticket was sold in Watertown.

The flub was due to a transcribing error, the Lottery said in a 10 a.m. statement.

"When manually recording the names of the retailers that sold the jackpot winning ticket and the $1 million winning tickets, the information was transcribed incorrectly," Executive Director of the Mass. State Lottery Michael Sweeney said. "We apologize for the confusion this created and remain thrilled that a jackpot winning ticket and two $1 million winning tickets were sold here in Massachusetts."

There was also a $1 million winning ticket sold at Sandy's Variety on Washington Street in Dorchester.

It isn't yet known who bought the winning tickets. Patch will update this story throughout the morning. Subscribe to Watertown Patch to keep up.

What is known is that the jackpot represents the largest lottery prize taken home by a single ticket in the history of North America. The largest Powerball prize was a $1.5 billion jackpot last January, but that was split by three winners.

Massachusetts won't automatically have a new $758 million man or woman. Taxes take a big bite out of the winnings. Here is how much the winner would have been able to take home at the originally reported jackpot of $700 million, courtesy of USAMega:

• If the winner opts for the annuity option, you receive 30 average annual payouts of $23,333,333. But Uncle Sam takes an average of $5,833,333, and Massachusetts takes an average of $1,166,667. So you're really getting an average of $16,333,333 per year - still enough to net $489,999,990. The first year's payout would net $7,375,203, and payments would increase until a $30,357,337 payout in 30 years.
• If the winner opst for the lump sum cash payout, as most do, then he or she is being awarded $443,300,000. That's before federal taxes take $110,825,000 and state taxes take another $22,165,000. Then the $700 million jackpot winning ends up being $310,310,000.

Patch will update this story

Google Maps image of Handy Variety