$699.8 million Powerball winner from California steps forward to claim jackpot

Dec 12, 2021, 3:27 pm (16 comments)

Powerball

The winner of the seventh-largest lottery prize in U.S. history now has a name

Includes audio report

By Kate Northrop

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Lottery announced on Thursday that the winner of the largest jackpot ever won in the state was finally claimed by a winning ticketholder from Morro Bay.

Just a few months ago in October, the nearly $700 million Powerball jackpot had lottery players across the country on the edge of their seats. Now, there is finally a name to the winner of the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the seventh-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

The lone winner of the whopping $699.8 million Powerball jackpot is Scott Godfrey, who walked into Morro Bay Alberstons on Quintana Road in Morro Bay and bought ten lines of Powerball Quick Picks for $20. Little did he know that he would be the one person to walk away from the drawing over a half a billion dollars richer.

One of the plays on his ticket matched all five numbers 12, 22, 54, 66, and 69 plus the Powerball number 15 drawn on Oct. 4, 2021. While he had ten lines of Quick Picks to check, he didn't have to look at the lottery results for long — the six winning numbers were at sitting on the top row of the ticket.

"You never really expect to win the Lottery, let alone a jackpot this big," Godfrey told the Lottery. "And — as you can imagine — I did a double take, no, more than a double take — a triple take, and when I saw I won, in fact, I asked someone to take a look and confirm what I was seeing."

Godfrey is a winner of historic proportions, becoming the winner of the largest jackpot ever won in the state. California is also the first state to record a jackpot win for a Monday Powerball drawing since a third draw was launched in August.

"It feels great to win big, of course, but I'm especially happy that this jackpot means $78 million was raised for California public education," Godfrey continued. "Even the times I played in the past and didn't win, I always felt, well at least a few bucks of this will be going to help schools."

After beating the overwhelming 1 in 292,201,338 odds of winning the Powerball jackpot, Godfrey opted to take the lump-sum prize of nearly $496 million before taxes. The Albertsons grocery store in Morro Bay will receive a $1 million commission for selling the winning ticket, the maximum bonus offered to retailers.

The $699.8 million Powerball jackpot had grown since June, when a ticket sold in Florida won a $285.6 million jackpot. The Oct. 4 drawing was the 41st since the last winner, making this the longest jackpot roll in Powerball history.

"The sole mission of the California Lottery is to raise extra money for California's public education programs," Lottery Director Alva V. Johnson said. "It's always fun to have a big winner in our state, and it's especially nice when they recognize the importance of why we do what we do. I'm proud that the Lottery has given schools more than $39 billion since we began the very first games back in 1985."

According to the Lottery, Godfrey is declining all further media interviews.

"We are private people, and we intend to stay that way," Godfrey said in a press release. "We've also, for a long time, been involved in charitable activities, and now we can really scale those efforts to take full appreciation of this blessing. This money is not about me. It's about all of the good that can come from it."

AUDIO: Listen to the winner

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Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Tony Numbers's avatarTony Numbers

Funny how the lottery is supposed to help education, yet education depts. are all crying poverty. The students are lagging behind. Someone is getting rich off the lottery money.

Mobile Merchant

Congrats to Mr. Scott Godfrey and family! I can imagine he and his family will be having a Merry Merry Christmas and deservedly so. Now, to all the nay saysers who thinks that buying quick picks are a waste of time and money i am afraid you may want to rethink your views on that notion. As another lottery post member opioned...."you don't have to buy all the combinations just the winning one" and as luck would have it this gentleman surely didParty

Bleudog101

Congratulations to this huge winner.   Didn't realize my birthday and upcoming age were among the #'s of the winning ticket...12 & 15...and double 66!!

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by Tony Numbers on Dec 12, 2021

Funny how the lottery is supposed to help education, yet education depts. are all crying poverty. The students are lagging behind. Someone is getting rich off the lottery money.

"the lottery is supposed to help education"

Where lottery profits are spent differ from state to state. In PA most of the profits go to "older Pennsylvanians" and it looks like none of their net 23% profit money goes directly to education. In some states the money goes into college scholarship funds and one or two actually have quota systems and expect the lottery to lower prize payouts to meet it.

I agree with your education comments; it should be much more than teaching kids how to say "would you like fries with your sandwich?".

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Party Congrats to the Winner! Party

Mata Garbo

Mr. Godfrey has the patience of a leopard in a tree. How on earth was he able to sit on a 700 million dollar ticket for almost 2 months without going insane thinking that somehow he would lose the ticket? I would not have been able to sleep, work or go out on dates. Every day I would have been worried sick. The only thing that wpuld have given me peace of mind would have been putting it in a safe deposit box at a bank. Anywhere else I would have not felt comfortable. 2 months is a long time. Congratulations to Mr. Godfrey and his family.

Hiding Behind ComputerSurrenderCheers

fellini

Quote: Originally posted by Mata Garbo on Dec 12, 2021

Mr. Godfrey has the patience of a leopard in a tree. How on earth was he able to sit on a 700 million dollar ticket for almost 2 months without going insane thinking that somehow he would lose the ticket? I would not have been able to sleep, work or go out on dates. Every day I would have been worried sick. The only thing that wpuld have given me peace of mind would have been putting it in a safe deposit box at a bank. Anywhere else I would have not felt comfortable. 2 months is a long time. Congratulations to Mr. Godfrey and his family.

Hiding Behind ComputerSurrenderCheers

Yeah I wonder what he was doing for two months!!!!

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Well, you know that's not chump change he won. Maybe he was getting his ducks in a row? Being smart about it. If I won that kind of money I wouldn't be scampering to Austin the next day. I'd be meeting with my tax adviser, my financial adviser, etc.

TheMeatman2005's avatarTheMeatman2005

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Dec 13, 2021

Well, you know that's not chump change he won. Maybe he was getting his ducks in a row? Being smart about it. If I won that kind of money I wouldn't be scampering to Austin the next day. I'd be meeting with my tax adviser, my financial adviser, etc.

I Agree! Exactly!

Ranett's avatarRanett

Well done Godfrey.Hurray!

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Now he can afford to get the heck out of California.

You can't get luckier than that.

eddessaknight's avatareddessaknight

Wish you the same luck,rdgrnr, should help moving expenses for about anywhere you want to escape to......Wink

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Dec 13, 2021

Now he can afford to get the heck out of California.

You can't get luckier than that.

couldn't have put it any better myself, Rdg 👍

Rexer90

Apparently California reduces the State budget for education by the same amount that it gets from the lottery & use it elsewhere so it does no good whatsoever.

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