Metro Atlanta store sold Powerball ticket with $478.2 million lottery jackpot
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
The winning numbers were 2-15-27-29-39 with a Powerball of 20, according to Georgia Lottery and Powerball websites.
Customers congratulated Sayed Ashraf, the Quik Mart’s store manager, throughout Thursday afternoon. He smiled and showed off the massive jackpot amount on signs posted on the front door and throughout the store, which sells the typical selection of convenience store goods such as snacks, drinks and, occasionally, winning lottery tickets.
“(The customers) are now starting to learn,” he said. “It’s going to be eventually, a very busy store.”
Ashraf said the winner has not come by yet, but he hopes the person will tell him about the big prize. He suspects the ticket was bought by a regular customer in the north Gwinnett community near Lake Lanier.
The lucky ticket holder has yet to come forward, and Georgia is one of the few states that allows a lottery winner to remain anonymous.
The store that sold the winning ticket may get some cash, too. Retailers who sell winning Powerball tickets can earn a $50,000 incentive bonus payment, a Georgia Lottery spokesperson said. Ashraf said he’s not sure how much money the store will get.
One regular customer, Gabriel Rossi, can’t believe someone won that much money at the shop that’s just down the road from where he lives. He doesn’t gamble, but if he had won, he said he would help his family, first and foremost.
“I have kids, so I’d help them with school and whatnot, and then take a well-deserved vacation,” Rossi said. “That’s generational wealth.”
The winner can opt for a $478.2 million annuitized prize, in which they get one initial payout followed by 29 annual payments, or collect a lump sum of $230.6 million, according to a press release from Powerball. Both figures are pretax.
It is the first time Georgia has had a Powerball jackpot winner since 2016, when a $246.8 million-winning ticket was sold at a Publix in Brookhaven.
In that case, William and Heather ten Broeke selected the cash option, which totaled about $165.6 million before taxes. At the time, they planned to invest their winnings, travel, help family and donate to charity.
All Georgia Lottery winners are reported to the IRS and Georgia Department of Revenue, and prizes are subject to federal and state withholdings and income taxes. State income tax of 5.39% and federal income tax of 24% are withheld from prizes of more than $5,000.
The game can be played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each, and drawings take place three times a week.
The odds of winning a prize, which could be as little as $4, are approximately 1 in 25, according to the Georgia Lottery website. But the odds get slimmer the higher the prize amount, and the chance of winning the jackpot is 1 in 292.2 million.
The last jackpot winning ticket was sold in New Jersey, netting the lucky player $221 million, according to the Powerball website. The anonymous winner elected the cash option of $104.7 million.
The largest Powerball jackpot win was for $2 billion in November 2022, according to NerdWallet.
Lottery proceeds help fund different education programs, including Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program and the state’s prekindergarten program.