Powerball Jackpot Winners of $1.765B Redeem Prize in California
The winners of the $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot hit last October in California have come forward to claim the prize.
Theodorus Struyck came forward to claim the $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot hit in October 2023. The California resident says he is part of a group of winners who regularly purchase lottery tickets together. (Image: Facebook/Casino.org)
A Powerball ticket sold in Frazier Park, California, for the Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, drawing managed to match the five white numbers and the red Powerball. That allows them to claim the second-richest lottery prize in US history. The lucky play was purchased at the Midway Market in Kern County, a family-owned business for 30 years that was awarded a $1 million bonus commission for selling the winning ticket.
Frazier Park is a small mountain town about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.
California resident Theodorus Struyck, 65, came forward to collect the historic prize. California requires lottery winners to disclose their identity to secure public trust in the state-run operation. Forty-four states have a lottery, but only 11 allow winners to remain anonymous.
Struyck said he represented a group of winners who purchase Powerball tickets together, with an agreement to share in any winnings.
The California Lottery release did not specify how many others are involved in the group. It also did not disclose whether the group chose the one-time cash option of approximately $774.1 million or the full value of the annuity paid out over 30 years. Both amounts are before a federal tax rate of 37%. California doesn’t further tax lottery winnings.
Hopes and Dreams
Struyck and his cohorts won the Powerball jackpot after the interstate lottery game went 35 draws without a single ticket matching the six drawn numbers. The odds of doing so are one in 292.2 million.
California Lottery officials say the run generated almost $120 million in funding for public schools, which is where the state allocates its lottery revenue. The cashing in of the jackpot ticket, the lottery release added, provides “hope” for the millions of lottery players across the country that they could be next.
Announcing big wins like this gives all of our players the chance to hope and dream that they could be next,” said California Lottery Director Harjinder K. Shergill Chima. “But it also gives us an opportunity to shine the spotlight on our terrific mission, which is to generate additional, supplemental funding for public education in California.”
Chima said that while most Powerball players will never win the jackpot, California students win every day because of the lottery.
As for Struyck, his neighbors say the win “couldn’t have happened to a better guy.” Struyck has for years lived in a small home measuring less than 1,200 square feet.
“He’s a family man, loves to spend time with his grandkids,” neighbor Kevin Woten told the Daily Mail. “He’s a really kind person and always seems happy. I imagine he’s got a lot of ideas of what he wants to do with the money.”
Struyck is originally from Hawaii. Woten said he talked in length with Struyck after the devastating Maui wildfires but doesn’t remember Struyck saying he has family there.
Jackpots Growing
The next major lottery winner in the US is imminent, as the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are growing to nearly unprecedented highs.
Monday night’s Powerball jackpot has an estimated value of $645 million, with the cash option at $307.3 million. Mega Millions has climbed to $875 million, with the cash at $413.5 million, for the game’s drawing on Tuesday night.
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