‘Shocked and ecstatic’ winner of record $2 billion Powerball jackpot is named – but says he ‘wants to remain largely private’
- Edwin Castro was named as the winner of the record $2 billion jackpot
- Lottery officials said that Castro would like to remain private
- Castro has opted to take a lump sum of $997.6 million
The winner of November’s record-high $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot has been identified as Edwin Castro.
Castro was identified during a press conference Tuesday by California Lottery Director Alva Johnson and Deputy Director Carolyn Becker in Sacramento. An earlier tweet from the body indicated that the winner was an individual and not a group.
He was not present during the event. Castro will take the money in a lump sum of $997.6 million. Under California rules, the name of the winner must be disclosed but no other information, including the winner’s address, has to be be made public.
Johnson told the media that Castro would like to remain largely private and that he declined an invitation from lottery officials to attend the press conference.
In a prepared statement, Castro said: ‘As much as I am shocked and ecstatic to have won the Powerball drawing, the real winner is the California public school system.’ The education system will receive over $150 million as a result of the win.
Joe’s Service Center owner Joe Chahayed pictured with his $1 million prize for selling the winning ticket
‘He now carries the unique label of having won the most amount of money in the entire world from a lottery. This is literally a global record,’ Becker told McClatchy News.
She continued: ‘There’s no question his life is changing forever as a result of this announcement.’
Almost immediately after Castro’s name was made public, Twitter users began having fun at the expense of one of America’s newest billionaires.
One Twitter user referred to Castro as his ‘new cousin,’ another asked the California resident to be her Valentine while another joked, ‘Edwin Castro owes me money.’
The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, an unincorporated foothill community northeast of Los Angeles. For selling the winning ticket, business owner Joe Chahayed received a bonus of $1 million.
‘I would like to thank all the community (who) support me. And I would … I encourage you to buy a ticket from this station. … You’re going to be a winner to,’ Chahayed said.
On Monday, his son, Joe Jr., told NBC Los Angeles said that his father’s store has experienced a huge surge in ticket sales since November.
‘We’ve seen a lot more of what we call lucky buyers that come from all over the state,’ he said.
Earlier, Chahayed’s other son, Danny, told the media: ‘There’s no one else who deserves it more than this man. He’s worked hard his whole life. He deserves every bit of it.’
The jackpot grew to the staggering amount of $2.04 billion after more than three months without anyone coming up with all the right numbers for the top prize.
The winning numbers were selected Nov. 8 in Florida after a nearly 10-hour delay due to a problem processing sales data.
According to California Lottery, the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 292 million. The numbers that changed Castro’s life forever were 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and the Powerball number was 10.
A total of 22 tickets were sold nationwide that did not have the matching Powerball number.
California Lottery tweeted on Tuesday morning, ‘We will show #CaliforniaEducation a whole lot of LOVE on #ValentinesDay when we unveil the sole winner of the record-breaking $2.04 billion #Powerball #jackpot from November.’
The previous biggest jackpot was $1.586 billion which was spread across three tickets that were sold in California, Florida and Tennessee. The biggest single winner was the $1.537 billion ticket that was sold to a lucky person in South Carolina.
