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Single $400 million winning Powerball ticket sold in South Carolina
LM Otero / AP
Larry McKinney waits for his Powerball lottery ticket at the Fuel City store Wednesday in Dallas.
By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News
Jackpot!
A single winning ticket was sold for the $400 million Powerball drawn Wednesday — one of the biggest prizes in the multi-state game ever, lottery officials announced early Thursday.
One grand prize winner was sold in South Carolina with the numbers 7, 10, 22, 32, 35 and a Powerball of 19.
The winner can claim an annuity valued at $400 million or take a lump sum in cash of $223 million — about $134 million after taxes, officials said.
The lucky ticket was sold in Lexington, according to South Carolina Educational Lottery Executive Director Paula Harper Bethea. The town of just under 20,000 is right in the middle of the Palmetto State.
South Carolina lottery officials advised the winner to "sign the back of the ticket, put it in a safe location, seek financial or legal advice from a trusted source, and then come forward to claim the ticket."
A press conference was planned for later Thursday at the store where the ticket was sold, a Murphy USA on Augusta Road.
Powerball had put the odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 175 million after 11 winnerless drawings had passed since Aug. 10.
The latest jackpot comes after a whopping $448 million prize in early August, which was split among three tickets.
A group of 16 Ocean County, N.J., employees — dubbed the "Ocean's 16" — who had all gone through Superstorm Sandy together and had each put in $6 to purchase lottery tickets split that take with Mario Scarnici of South Brunswick, N.J., and Paul White of Minnesota.
In May, an 84-year-old widow in Florida won the biggest Powerball jackpot in history — a $590 million haul. Gloria C. MacKenzie bought her golden ticket at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills.
Wednesday's jackpot was the fourth largest ever for Powerball and the fifth largest ever in any US. lottery.
The jackpot had soared since Saturday, when no one won the $317 million top prize.
Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington and the U.S. Virgin Islands
The game's prizes are getting larger, in part because the ticket price rose to $2 from $1 in January, and because California, the most populous state, joined in April.
NBC News' Hasani Gittens contributed to this story
Related:
Powerball's big jackpots prompt Mega Millions to make a move
This story was originally published on Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:42 AM EDT
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