A woman from Massachusetts has made Powerball history, after purchasing a winning ticket worth nearly $760 million. This lottery ticket makes her the biggest individual lottery winner of all time in the United States. The 53-year-old woman, Mavis Wanczyk, revealed earlier this week that she held the winning ticket.
Beating the Powerball Odds
The winning ticket was purchased at the Pride Station and Store, located in Chicopee, around 90 miles west of Boston. Wanczyk purchased two quick-pick tickets, along with a third ticket that she chose the numbers on. This is the one that went on to win her the life-changing jackpot. Her winning numbers were 6-7-16-23-26 and the Powerball number 4. She says that she used important birthdays for the numbers and her personal lucky number 4.
Her winning ticket means that she defied the odds of winning, which were roughly 1 in 292 million. This was also the first time the lottery jackpot had been won since the 10th of June, leading to 20 rollovers. This helped the jackpot to climb to such an amazing amount.
Largest Single Winner in Powerball History
Wanczyk’s win is the second-biggest jackpot in Powerball history. The biggest jackpot ever won was back in January 2016, when $1.6 billion was won. However, this was won by three people who had to share the prize. Wanczyk’s win is the largest win for an individual.
She apparently elected to receive her money with the annuity payout option, rather than getting it all at once. This will mean that she will receive 30 payments over the next 29 years, equal to at least $13 million a year. Most jackpot winners tend to take the money all at once, but this means they lose half of their jackpot in taxes. In addition to this, it has been reported that up to 70% of all jackpot winners have gone broke within five years of winning.
