New Jersey Wins $847 Million Powerball Jackpot

A lottery ticket bought in New Jersey hit the latest Powerball jackpot this week – scoring $847 million, the ninth-largest prize pool in the lottery’s history. The lucky player hit it big on Wednesday. They now have the option to take the full payout in annual installments over 29 years, or a $363.1 million one-time payment. The winner will lose 24% in federal taxes and another 8% in taxes to the Garden State. Tax authorities will collect around $116 million. The winner hadn’t come forward as of Friday to claim the winnings.

This marked the second-largest lottery ever won in New Jersey, according to New Jersey Lottery Executive Director James A. Carey. Back-To-Back Huge Payouts The jackpot had grown since a player won the previous $1.04 billion payout on Aug. 12. The latest winner is likely to remain anonymous, according to the New York Post, because of state privacy laws. A Wegmans grocery store in Montvale sold the winning ticket. It is one of New Jersey’s wealthier cities, with a median household income of $178,000. The city of 9,800 is home to companies like Benjamin Moore, Sharp Electronics, Pentax Medical, KPMG, and INEOS Automotive.

The grocery store will collect a $30,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. The odds of winning a jackpot are about 292.2 million to one. Americans are 15,500 more likely to be hit by lightning than to snag the winning ticket, according to Casino.org. The largest-ever jackpot was $2.04 billion, won by a player in California in November 2022. Powerball jackpots are now expected to grow even more in the coming years after lottery officials announced last month that gamblers in the UK could now take part.