Blocks from the epicenter of the homelessness crisis, one of the most lucrative lottery tickets in history was sold.
After months of anticipation, on Wednesday six numbers were drawn and one ticket, which was sold in Los Angeles' Fashion District, matched.
At about $1 billion, this prize is the third-largest Powerball jackpot in history and the seventh-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever. The winner, who remains unidentified, purchased their ticket at Las Palmitas Mini Market at East 12th Street and Wall Street, which is a short walk from Skid Row.
"This has turned into a historic jackpot run; this is only the third time in Powerball's 31-year history that a jackpot has reached the billion-dollar threshold," Drew Svitko, Powerball Product Group chair and Pennsylvania Lottery executive director, said in a news release before it was announced that someone had drawn all five numbers plus the Powerball number.
The release also noted that the estimated cash value of the jackpot was $558.1 million. The winner can also collect a smaller payment followed by an annuity doled out over 29 years in payments that increase by 5% each year. That is all before taxes, however.
Whoever walked out of Las Palmitas with the jackpot winner isn't alone in their success. There were seven winning tickets in California in which five of the numbers matched. Each of those winners — three of whom were in Los Angeles County — will collect about $450,000.
It's the second huge Powerball jackpot won in L.A. County in the last eight months after a ticket worth $2.04 billion was bought at an Altadena gas station. The owner of the station where that ticket was sold recieved a $1-million prize for selling the winning ticket. In 2016, the jackpot reached $1.586 billion before there was a winner.
For this latest jackpot, the odds of winning were 1 in 292.2 million. Even getting five right is a rarity. The odds of that were 1 in 11.6 million.
The winner of Wednesday's jackpot has up to a year to claim the prize.
