Did You Buy Your Lottery Ticket in Milpitas? Local Store Sold Sole $425.3 Million Winning Ticket

By Renee Schiavone and Bay City News Service:

While the lucky winner of the largest jackpot ever won in California has yet to come forward, the Milpitas store where the winning ticket was sold has been identified and owners there stand to receive $1 million, a California Lottery spokesman said Thursday. 

The jackpot winner, who won $425.3 million, purchased the ticket for $2 at the Dixon Landing Chevron gas station located at 1551 California Circle in Milpitas.   

That jackpot is the culmination of more than a dozen roll-overs, since no one has won the big prize since the end of 2013, and is the biggest in California history.  It's also the 6th largest jackpot in U.S. history, according to California lottery officials.

The winning numbers drawn Wednesday were 17, 49, 54, 35, 1 and the Powerball number 34, California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said. 

The jackpot is won by matching all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball.  The odds of winning this jackpot were about one in 175 million, according to the multi-state lottery association. 

Once the winner comes forward, he or she can choose to take the  prize paid out over 29 years or a lump sum payment, equal to $242.2 million,  before paying 25 percent in federal taxes, according to Traverso.

The winning ticket means about $8 million for the state's public schools, Traverso said. About $20 million was spent on tickets for this Powerball drawing.

The California public school system receives about 40 cents of every dollar spent on lottery tickets in the state, Traverso said. This is the second time the Powerball jackpot has been won in California since the state began participating in the game on April 8, 2013.

Two other tickets sold in California - one in El Segundo and another in Modesto - matched five numbers, but missed the Powerball. Those tickets are now worth $1,444,906 to whomever has them, according to lottery officials.

The jackpot ticket is the second big winner in Santa Clara County in about two months. On Dec. 17, 2013, a winning Mega Millions ticket with a $648 million jackpot was purchased at Jenny's Gift Shop located at 1818 Tully Road in San Jose. That jackpot was split with another winner in Georgia.

"We will not know who the winner is until the ticket is claimed," lottery officials said.  "We strongly encourage any Lottery winner to immediately SIGN THE BACK OF THEIR TICKET IN INK and claim the prize at ANY of the California Lottery’s nine District Office Locations."

The closest district office to where this winning ticket was sold is in Hayward, at the East Bay District Office, located at 2489 Industrial Parkway.  The phone number is (510) 670-4630.