Oregon man's visit to a grocery store made him richer than billionaire Taylor Swift overnight
Surpassing Taylor Swift's net worth became a reality for a lottery winner from Oregon, who came forward to claim a $1.3 billion jackpot (£1.049 billion) in April. The winner became richer than the singing sensation in just one day. The superstar joined the Forbes billionaires list the same month following the huge success of her Eras tour, and music sales.
The lottery winner, who chose to remain anonymous due to security reasons, matched all the numbers and became a millionaire overnight. According to reports, the winning ticket was bought at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in north-east Oregon. The store is said to have received a cool $100,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Lottery director Mike Wells at the time said, "This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery. We’re taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money."
Plaid Pantry President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky said, "Plaid Pantry is thrilled to learn that one of our 104 Oregon stores sold the $1.3 billion dollar Powerball ticket. This store is one of our newest and most loved stores. Proceeds from the Oregon Lottery fund many programs that benefit everyone in the state, and we’ve been a proud partner with the Oregon Lottery since the very beginning. Congratulations to our lucky customer from our over 700 Plaid associates!"
The jackpot has a cash value of $621million (£490million) if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments, as per reports. In the US, when you win a lottery you have to option to receive your winnings in one go or in installments typically spread over 29 years.
If you choose to take the lump sum, then you will likely be pushed into the top tax bracket, which is 37%. Lottery agencies take 24% of all winnings over $5,000. This means if you win it above that, you will owe the difference between the withholding amount and the total tax.
According to Madison Trust Company, the odds of winning a Powerball Grand prize are one in 292,201,338, and the odds of winning $1 million from Powerball are 1 in 11,688,053. As reported, the prize was the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, as per the Oregon Lottery.
The biggest was a $2.04 billion Powerball win which was won back in 2022 by Edwin Castro, who was the 1-in-292.2 million winner of the biggest lottery jackpot of all time.
However, Castro did not qualify as a billionaire and chose to receive his prize in a single reduced sum of $997.6 million. The winning ticket of the biggest Powerball jackpot in history was purchased at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California, and the store received a $1 million prize for selling the ticket.
