California seems to be entering an new gold rush as lottery players from the state have won some of the highest jackpots in history and accounted for two of the five Powerball wins this year, totaling $2.84 billion in jackpot prizes.
While buying a lottery ticket in the Golden State does not increase one’s chances of winning, Californians purchased 13.1 percent of Powerball and Mega Millions tickets nationwide this year.
Carolyn Becker, a spokeswoman for California Lottery, told DailyMail.com, ‘California is the most populous state in the nation, and therefore we have more California Lottery players than any other U.S. jurisdiction.’
From January 2 through December 20, a total of 386.5 million Powerball tickets were sold in California, accounting for 12.4 percent of sales nationwide. There were five completed rolling sequences during this period, meaning California accounted for 40 percent of the wins.
‘This year (2023), we were thrilled to have sold two winning jackpot tickets for a couple of Powerball’s most historic runs – both worth more than $1 billion in prize money. Other states have had similar good fortune for Mega Millions prizes that have reached the billion-dollar threshold,’ said Becker.
Edwin Castro, the largest Powerball lottery winner in US history, ‘vanished’ from social media and whisked his friends off for a luxury vacation as he prepared to live a life of luxury
Castro’s purchased a $4million mansion he reportedly bought for his parents, a short drive from the suburb where he grew up
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,300 square foot house is in Altadena, California, and features a number of luxury amenities including a koi pond garden
Castro also bought this $25million home just 20 miles from his $4million property in California
Becker said, ‘Even more exciting for us, however, is that these big wins generate our ability to maximize sales which gives a big boost to our beneficiary, which is public education in California.’
‘This year, for the first time in our history, we were so pleased to announce that California Lottery generated a record of more than $2.07 billion for public schools during the recently audited fiscal year 2021-’22. That gigantic number shattered the previous record of more than $1.88 billion set the previous year.’
Of the top 10 Powerball jackpots, Californians have won half of them – including the top four prizes and two of them were won this year.
The second highest Powerball prize of $1.765 billion was won on October 11 and was sold at Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, a community nestled inside the Los Padres National Forest – just over an hour from Los Angeles.
The fourth largest prize of $1.080 billion was won on July 19, and the winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market – a tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles. The two winners from this year have not been named yet.
For the Mega Millions, Californians have taken home two of the top 10 jackpots. In December 2013, a winner from California split $648 million with a winner for Georgia, and in July 2018, a Californian won $543 million
Of the top 10 Powerball jackpots, Californians have won half of them – including the top four prizes and two of them were won this year
The largest Powerball prize of $2.040 billion was won in the Golden State on November 7, 2022 by Edwin Castro.
In the days after his win, Castro took his friends on a luxury vacation to Fiji and scrubbed his online presence before his identity was revealed.
The third highest jackpot of $1.586 billion was won on January 13, 2016, by three winners including Marvin and Mae Acosta from California, the Nickel 95 Trust from Florida and Lisa and John Robinson from Tennessee. The ninth largest prize of $699.8 million was won on October 4, 2021, by Scott Godfrey.
However, Powerball’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins. And wins in recent months have been few and far between.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The second highest Powerball prize of $1.765 billion was won on October 11 and was sold at Midway Market & Liquor (pictured) in Frazier Park – just over an hour from Los Angeles
The fourth largest prize of $1.080 billion was won on July 19 and the winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market (pictured) – a tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles
On social media, some users shared they think the Powerball is rigged due to the sheer amount of winners from California.
Many accuse Powerball of being corrupted, just as the state’s government is perceived to be.
‘Everything California touches has a corruption hand attached to it,’ one wrote.
‘These people rigged the entire state every program every office every single thing pays this crooked government in this state.’
Another chimed in: ‘You do notice that the winners are all from Democratic states and the biggest Democratic state is California.
‘Of course, it’s fixed the same way the election is fixed,’ the angry user wrote. The reply has achieved nearly 300 likes and dozens of reposts.
‘Who profits from the taxes taken out? Upwards of what 50%? Yes I would say it’s rigged,’ another replied.
As for the Mega Millions, from January 3 through December 19 California sold 345.9 million tickets, accounting for 14 percent of nationwide sales.
There were 10 completed rolling sequences during that period and winning tickets were sold in California for one of them – meaning the Golden State accounted for 10 percent of the wins.
Californians have taken home two of the top 10 Mega Millions jackpots. In December 2013, a winner from California split $648 million with a winner for Georgia, and in July 2018, a Californian won $543 million.
On December 11, a Chevron station in Encino sold two winning Mega Millions tickets – a first for the state.
‘While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it’s not unheard of,’ Becker said.
‘There are any number of explanations; perhaps one person wanted to try their luck on two different rows for whatever reason, or maybe a couple of buddies wanted to try their chances with the same exact numbers. We won’t know exactly how this happened until the prize is claimed.’
Combing both Powerball and Mega Millions, California sold 732.4 million tickets out of 5.578 billion sold nationwide.
There were 15 completed rolling sequences during this period and winning tickets were sold in California for three of those.
New York also accounted for 20 percent of the total wins while Massachusetts and Florida each accounted for 13.3 percent of the total wins
Therefore, 66.7 percent of the total wins in 2023 have come from just four states.