It Feels Good, Co-Owner Of Sun City Liquor Store That Sold Winning Powerball Ticket Says
MENIFEE, CA - A small liquor store next to a retirement village has vaulted into the history books for selling one of the biggest lottery tickets in U.S. lottery history: a Powerball ticket worth an estimated $448 million before taxes.
"And it feels good," said Matthew Alberre, co-owner of the Marietta Liquor & Deli in Sun City. His store gets $1 million from the state as the lucky retailer.
But Alberre said he has no idea which customer bought the ticket with all six numbers in Saturday night's drawing of the multi-state Powerball lottery. Those numbers were 20, 26, 32, 38, 58 and the Powerball number 3.
The owners of Marietta Liquor & Deli in Sun City posed for California Lottery officials on Monday, June 12, 2017. Credit: California Lottery
Alberre said it was the third million-dollar-plus ticket sold at the store, and by far the largest. "We got the call last night at around 9 p.m.," he said on Sunday.
Alberre owns the store with his father, who has owned it for 26 years. And he said his family hadn't yet made plans on how to spend the 1 million dollars of compensation they will be awarded for selling the winning ticket.
The store is located in the midst of Sun City, a retirement community off Interstate 215 in Menifee, about 25 miles south of Riverside.
The nearly half-a-billion dollar jackpot is the seventh largest in Powerball history, and reportedly the tenth largest in U.S. lottery history.
Two tickets with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, were also sold and are worth more than $322,000 each.
The jackpot for Wednesday's drawing will be $40 million.
The Powerball game is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.