Ohio Sells $100,000 and $50,000 Powerball Tickets as $516 Million Jackpot Goes Unclaimed

Q: Why did a California lottery ticket missing the Powerball pay out over double the usual million-dollar prize?

It paid more because California does not use Powerball’s standard fixed Match 5 prize for major wins. Instead, California law requires these prizes to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the amount is calculated from ticket sales and then divided based on how many winners there are in that prize tier. In most other Powerball states, a ticket that matches five white balls but misses the Powerball is a set $1 million prize, or $2 million if the player bought the Power Play option where allowed. California is different: the payout can be lower or higher than those standard amounts. For the Lakeside ticket, the pari-mutuel calculation for that drawing produced a prize of $2,259,918. That likely reflected strong sales during a large jackpot run and the limited number of California winners sharing that pool. The same system is why California Match 5 prizes sometimes come in below $1 million in other drawings, as happened in previous cases. So the ticket paid more than double the usual $1 million not because it hit a special bonus, but because California’s lottery rules tie the prize to sales and winner count rather than a fixed national amount.

Q: Who bought the mysterious winning ticket at Americo Gas, and will they claim their massive multi-million dollar prize?

The buyer has not been publicly identified, and there is no confirmed claim yet. What is known is that the winning Powerball ticket was sold at Americo Gas, 12402 Woodside Ave. in Lakeside, California, for Saturday night’s drawing. It matched five numbers — 1, 4, 19, 33 and 51 — but missed the Powerball, 15, making it worth $2,259,918 under California’s pari-mutuel payout system. Neither the California Lottery nor the reporting cited has named a winner or said the prize has been claimed. At this stage, the ticket holder remains a mystery unless and until they come forward and complete the claim process. Whether the person will claim it is impossible to know now, but California winners do have a deadline. Lottery materials included in the search results indicate winning tickets must be claimed within 180 days of the draw date. Until then, the most practical answer is that someone in or around Lakeside may be holding a multimillion-dollar ticket and may not even realize it yet. For now, the only verified facts are where the ticket was sold, how much it is worth, and that no public claimant has been identified.

3 articles · Updated · WHIO · Oct 11

Two Ohio Powerball tickets won $100,000 and $50,000 in Saturday night's drawing, with the larger prize sold at East End Express in Hubbard.
The $100,000 ticket matched four of five numbers plus the Powerball and included the 2x PowerPlay; the $50,000 ticket matched four numbers and the Powerball.
The winning numbers were 1, 4, 19, 33, 51 and Powerball 15, while the location of the $50,000 Ohio ticket has not yet been announced.
No ticket hit all six numbers, leaving the $516 million jackpot unclaimed and lifting Monday's estimated top prize to $538 million.