HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio — In the 14-plus years that Ohio has participated in the Powerball lottery, only five jackpot-winning tickets have been sold in the Buckeye state, the last one on Wednesday, July 3 at the Huber Heights Walmart.
The state has won 1.2% of the jackpots, ranking 32. Indiana leads with more Powerball winners than any other state with 39 winners, followed by Missouri (31), Minnesota (22), Pennsylvania (19) and Wisconsin (19).
The Walmart Supercenter at 7680 Brandt Pike in Huber Heights sold the winning Powerball auto-pick ticket matching all five numbers plus the Powerball for the Wednesday night drawing, the Ohio Lottery announced Thursday.
The winning numbers were 2-26-33-55-57 and the red Powerball number was 22. The Powerplay was 2X.
The winner will have the option to take the $138 million jackpot in an annuity or the cash option prize of $65.8 million after taxes.
Before Wednesday’s winning ticket sold, the last lucky Ohio ticket was sold July 19, 2023. Before that, the last Ohio Powerball winner ($124.9 million in 2014) was bought in Conneaut on the Pennsylvania border and Lake Erie shore — as far away from Dayton as you can be and still be in Ohio.
But that’s not stopping eager people from lining up to buy tickets and try their luck, as Monday’s night’s grand prize has grown to $29 million after there was no winner Saturday night.
Saturday night’s winning numbers were 5, 32, 35, 39, 49 (21).
The largest jackpot was sold in California to one player who matched all the numbers, winning a jackpot of more than $2 billion. The cash option was worth $997 million. The winning ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center, 15 W Woodbury Road, Altadena.
As jackpot suma rises, so does the number of tickets purchased, says Josh Dziedzicki, territory manager of the Tipp City RoadDog store.
“There are a few different types of players we see; we get players who just get one or two tickets when the jackpot is high, then we’ll see people who have 10-year-old tickets and they’ll play those same numbers every time,” Dziedzicki told the Dayton Daily News last year.
According to the Ohio Lottery Commission, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot — which requires matching five numbers, plus a Powerball number — is one in 292 million. For comparison, the odds of getting struck by lightning are less than one in 1 million, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
Ohio has had only slightly better luck in the Mega Millions lottery drawings in recent years, with two jackpot winners since November 2015. One of those was a $143 million ticket sold at Fat Daddy’s Road Dog in Moraine in May 2018. The winner chose the cash option, but claimed the jackpot via a passive trust to protect their identity.
Before that, a group of 15 Piqua city workers hit a $207 million Mega Millions jackpot just before Christmas in 2008.
If Thursday’s drawing was your lucky day, just know that the Ohio Lottery Commission will withhold 28% in income tax up-front (4% state and 24% federal), and you’re likely to owe millions more the following April, given the 37% federal tax bracket for the highest earners, plus the possibility of city income tax.
Lottery profits go to an education fund to benefit Ohio schools. State officials said the Ohio Lottery contributed $1.4 billion to the fund last fiscal year.
