Winning Ticket Sold in Record $2.04 Billion US Lottery

Winning Ticket Sold in Record $2.04 Billion US Lottery¹

Early reports say one winning ticket for the largest lottery prize in United States history has been sold to someone in Southern California. The record jackpot is worth $2.04 billion.

Lottery officials said the jackpot ticket was sold at a business called Joe's Service Center in Altadena, a community northeast of Los Angeles.

The latest drawing for the lottery winnings, known as the jackpot, was held Tuesday morning. That drawing had been delayed Monday night because of a sales processing problem.

The lottery is called Powerball. It is played by people in 45 U.S. states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin² Islands.

The jackpot was estimated to be $1.9 billion on Monday. But the prize was increased to $2.04 billion on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday's drawing followed one on Saturday that was the 40th in a row without a winner of the big prize. The jackpot grows larger each time it goes unclaimed.

A winning ticket must match all six numbers that are drawn³. The numbers in the latest drawing were 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and 10.

The current jackpot is more than $400 million larger than past record jackpots. Only four in the past have been larger than $1 billion, but none of those were close to the current prize. The current jackpot started at $20 million on August 6. No one has won the jackpot since August 3.

The $2.04 billion prize is for a winner who chooses to receive yearly payments over 29 years. However, nearly all winners instead choose to be paid in cash, which greatly lowers the amount. Lottery officials did not immediately provide a value for the one-time cash payment, but it was likely to be around $1 billion.

The odds⁴ of winning the current jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

The previous record for a Powerball jackpot was set in 2016 when three ticket holders⁵ from California, Florida and Tennessee shared a $1.59 billion top prize.

Words in This Story

lottery – n. a contest that involves selling number tickets to people who have a chance at winning a prize if their number is chosen

drawing – n. a competition that is decided⁶ by choosing a particular ticket number

match – v. to be equal in quality or strength

in a row –phrase following one after the other without anything else in between

cash – n. money in the form of coins or notes

odds – n. the probability that something will happen

1 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

2 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

3 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

4 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

5 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。