Winning billion-dollar Powerball ticket sold in central Illinois

A Powerball ticket sold at a gas station in central Illinois was the sole winner of the $1 billion jackpot, ending a three-month drought without a top-prize victor.

The ticket that won the jackpot Wednesday night was purchased at a Hy-Vee station in Quincy, about 100 miles west of the state capital of Springfield along the Missouri border. 

It wasn’t immediately clear if the winner has come forward yet.

The prize comes in the form of either an annuity of $1 billion paid over 29 years or a lump-sum payment of $450.5 million. Winners almost always take the lump sum.

It was the first Powerball jackpot won since May 2, when the top prize was $20 million, and the first since ticket sales began in the United Kingdom last month. 

At $2 per play, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292 million.


(AP file photo)