Jackpot! $758-million Powerball ticket sold to hospital worker in Massachusetts

Californians hoping to pocket Wednesday’s $758.7-million Powerball jackpot prize are out of luck.

One jackpot-winning ticket was sold in the U.S. — to a player at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, Mass.

“We didn’t get a jackpot in California,” said Cathy Johnston, spokeswoman for the California Lottery.

Mavis L. Wanczyk, the 53-year-old hospital worker who claimed the jackpot told reporters Thursday that winning the lottery was “a pipe dream.”

Wanczyk said she was leaving work at night with a Chicopee firefighter, and they were discussing Powerball.

That’s when she realized she had won. She said the firefighter followed her home to make sure she got there safely.

Wanczyk said the first thing she wants to do is sit back and relax. She said she has called work to let them know she won’t be back.

Wanczyk has two adult children, a daughter and a son.

Lottery officials said she chose to take a lump sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes.

It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

Although no Californians won the big prize, three ticket buyers matched five of the six winning numbers. Those tickets were sold in California at these locations:

• Ralphs at 2555 E. Bluff Drive in Newport Beach.
• Dickson Landing Chevron at 1551 California Circle in Milpitas.
• Lucky California at 6843 Mission St. in Daly City.

Information on the prize value of each ticket is not yet available.

The winning numbers for Wednesday evening’s draw were 6, 7, 16, 23, 26 and the Powerball number was 4.

The prize is the second-largest jackpot in the game’s history. Between 3 and 4 p.m., an average of 67,000 Powerball tickets were sold each minute in California.

The largest prize was last year’s $1.59-billion jackpot that was split among tickets bought in Chino Hills and in Florida and Tennessee.

If no tickets had matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday, the jackpot would have increased by at least $10 million in each subsequent drawing. Lottery officials said that if there was no winner, the prize could have reached $1 billion Saturday.

But since there was a winner, the jackpot will reset to $40 million.

Drawings are on Wednesday and Saturday nights.

To win the game’s top jackpot, a player must match all five numbers drawn from 1 to 69 and a Powerball number from 1 to 26. The odds of matching all six numbers is 1 in 292 million — or a 0.0000000034% chance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

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UPDATES:

10:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Mavis Wanczyk.

9:20 a.m.: This article was updated with information about the jackpot winner.

Aug. 24, 1:50 a.m.: Updated to report only one winning ticket was sold.

10:05 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the jackpot winner.

8:45 p.m.: This article was updated with locations of winning tickets.

This article was originally published on Aug. 23 at 8:25 p.m.