One ticket, one gas station, $1 billion: Powerball’s drought ends in Illinois

A Powerball ticket sold at a gas station in western Illinois was the sole winner of the $1 billion jackpot, ending a three-month drought without a top-prize victor.

The ticket that won the jackpot Wednesday night was purchased at a Hy-Vee station in Quincy, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of the state capital of Springfield along the Missouri border, Illinois Lottery officials said.

The winning numbers were 4-26-66-67-69 with the Powerball number of 9.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the winner has come forward yet.

The prize comes in the form of either an annuity of $1 billion paid over 29 years or a lump-sum payment of $450.5 million.

Winners almost always take the lump sum.

It was the first Powerball jackpot won since May 2, when the top prize was $20 million, and the first since ticket sales began in the United Kingdom last month.

At $2 per play, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292 million.

The $1.04 billion grand prize was the eighth-largest in Powerball history, game organizers said.

Another lottery game, Mega Millions has also had a $1 billion jackpot winner.

“Congratulations to our newest Powerball jackpot winner in Illinois,” Stephen Durrell, chair of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Kansas Lottery, said in a statement.

“For more than three decades, Powerball has shown that a winning ticket can be sold anywhere the game is played, giving every $2 ticket the chance to change not only a winner’s life, but generations to come.” Four tickets sold for Wednesday’s drawing — in Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina — hit five of the numbers but missed the Powerball number.

They were worth $1 million apiece.

A ticket sold in Massachusetts also matched all the numbers except the Powerball number, but won $2 million because of the “Power Play” multiplier option costing an extra $1 per play.