One of three winning Powerball tickets sold in SoCal

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Thursday, January 14, 2016
One of three winning Powerball tickets sold in SoCal
Lottery officials announced someone in California, Tennessee and Florida won the Powerball, but it was a spectacle to see how people celebrated in Chino Hills.

LOS ANGELES -- The world's biggest lotto jackpot will be split three ways.

California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso told The Associated Press early Thursday morning that the three previously announced winning tickets in the record $1.6 billion Powerball drawing represent all the grand-prize winners. No more will be forthcoming.

The tickets matching all six numbers were sold in Florida, Tennessee and Southern California.

The winners can opt for annual payments over decades or a lump-sum payment. None of the winners' identities have yet been revealed.

Lottery officials told KABC in Los Angeles the record-breaking ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven located at 4092 Chino Hills Pkwy. The store will get a $1 million bonus for selling the ticket.

Late Wednesday evening, following the announcement that a winning ticket was sold at the store, people began swarming from all over to celebrate with the clerk who believes he sold the ticket.

California had 12 tickets match five of the six numbers in the drawing, four of those were sold around the Bay Area. Five-of-six winning tickets were sold in: Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Vacaville, and Cloverdale. Those tickets may be worth six or seven figures.

The other tickets that that matched five of the six numbers were sold in the following cities: Tustin, Pacoima, Redlands, Gardena, Irwindale, Nipton, Chula Vista, and Santa Monica.

Officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, said they expected more than 85 percent of the possible number combinations would have been bought for the drawing. The odds of winning were 1 in 292.2 million.

Winners have to pay 39.6 percent of the prize in federal income taxes, in addition to any state taxes.

Estimated jackpot amounts, which are released daily, have been steadily rising since Nov. 4, when the jackpot was reset at $40 million.

Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

But residents in the six states that don't participate found ways to get their hands on tickets. Some of the biggest Powerball sales have come from cities bordering states that don't sell the tickets, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The association oversees the Powerball Lottery, but management rotates annually among member states.

Click herefor full overage on Powerball fever.

ABC7 News contributed to this report.

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