Wednesday’s winning Powerball ticket was sold at a convenience store in Georgia, netting the lucky buyer a $478 million jackpot, the state lottery said.

Purchased at a Quick Mart in Buford, the six matching numbers gave the cardholder the largest win in state history, said Gretchen Corbin, president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery. The winning numbers for the Powerball drawing on Wednesday, October 23 were: 2, 15, 27, 29 and 39 and the Powerball was 20.

Powerball said on its website that 616,153 tickets sold nationwide won prizes in Wednesday night’s drawing. Two tickets, one sold in Pennsylvania and the other in Texas, matched all five white balls and won $1 million prizes.

The jackpot winner can receive either the $478.2 million paid out annually or a lump sum of $230.6 million, both before taxes. If the winner selects the annuity option, they will receive one immediate payment, followed by 29 annual payments.

This was the first jackpot winner in the state since 2016, when husband and wife team William and Heather ten Broeke purchased a $246.8 million winning ticket. They chose to accept the cash payout, which totaled $165,613,511 before taxes.

Where was the winning Powerball ticket sold in Georgia?

The winning ticket was sold at Quick Mart, located at 2155 Buford Dam Road in Buford, Georgia. Retailers who sell the jackpot-winning ticket will earn a $50,000 incentive bonus, the lottery said.

Powerball tickets have been sold inside 45 states. Utah, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and Alabama are not participating in the game for a variety of reasons, including objections from conservatives, concerns about the impact on low-income families and a desire not to compete with existing gambling operations. Tickets cost $2.

Players can choose their numbers or have them randomly generated by a computer. An expert told CBS News it is better to use the random ticket number generators as these machines may better match what the Powerball drawing might do.

Still, the chances of winning the jackpot are very small. According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9, but the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

To put that in context, a Powerball player is more likely to be attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park — about 1 in 2.7 million, according to the National Park Service — or to blue lobster in the ocean (1 in 2 million).

Do we know who won the Powerball jackpot?

The Georgia lottery has not yet announced whether the owner of the winning ticket has claimed his prize. Winners in Georgia have 180 days from the drawing date to claim prizes. When the winner is announced, we may still not know his identity because people who win big jackpots in Georgia have the option to collect their winnings anonymously.

Once the winner claims their ticket, it will be the largest payout in the history of the Georgia Lottery, officials said. This jackpot surpasses the previous record set by a Mega Millions winner from Stone Mountain, who claimed half of a $648 million jackpot and was awarded a cash option of more than $173 million, before taxes.

Where and when was the previous Powerball jackpot won?

The Powerball jackpot has been won eight times this year, with the most recent winning ticket sold ahead of Wednesday’s drawing on August 19, 2024 in California for a jackpot of $44.3 million.

The largest payout in Powerball history took place in California at a price of $2.04 billion in 2022. In 2016, three winners from California, Florida and Tennessee shared a $1.586 billion prize.

The other winners in 2024 were:

Powerball jackpots 2024

• January 1, 2024 – $842.4 million – Michigan
• April 6, 2024 – $1.326 billion – Oregon
• May 6, 2024 – $214.9 million – Florida
• June 10, 2024 – $226.6 million – New Jersey
• July 3, 2024 – $139.3 million – Ohio
• August 12, 2024 – $213.8 million – Pennsylvania
• August 19, 2024 – $44.3 million – California

Khristopher J. Brooks and Emily Mae Czachor contributed to this report.