TALLAHASSEE – At a press conference today, the Florida Lottery announced that the Florida winner from the $1.5 billion POWERBALL® jackpot drawing held on January 13, claimed one-third share of the jackpot at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee. The $528.7 million prize was claimed by The Nickel 95 Trust. The trustees are David Kaltschmidt, 55, and Maureen Smith, 70, of Melbourne Beach. The Trust chose to receive the winnings in a one-time, lump-sum payment in the amount of $327,835,077.79.
“The Florida Lottery is all about creating winning moments and giving people the chance to fulfill their dreams,” said Florida Lottery Secretary Tom Delacenserie. “We congratulate Florida?s newest jackpot winner, and recognize how this POWERBALL jackpot will not only change their life but allowed the Lottery to generate more money for education from a single jackpot than ever before, with more than $114 million raised for Florida students and schools.”
The winners stated they had been playing the same Lottery numbers for years and though they did not watch the drawing live, they realized the next morning that they had the winning numbers. They frequently shop at the Publix, located at 3830 Highway A1A in Melbourne Beach, where their winning ticket was purchased. They also expressed how difficult it was to keep such a big secret for over a month.
To view the press conference, visit the the Lottery’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/floridalottery.
The winning numbers from the January 13 drawing were 4-8-19-27-34 and the Powerball was 10. The jackpot-winning ticket was purchased at Publix, located at 3830 Highway A1A in Melbourne Beach. The retailer received $100,000 for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.
This POWERBALL jackpot roll series, which began on November 7, 2015, resulted in more than 5.3 million winning tickets in Florida, totaling more than $558.8 million in prizes. This includes creating 18 new Florida POWERBALL millionaires. Additionally, Florida Lottery retailer earned more than $14 million in commissions and bonuses during this jackpot series.
Media who have inquiries or requests may contact the Trust’s representative at the law firm of Kurt D. Panouses P.A. of Indialantic, Florida.
Florida is a great place to play POWERBALL, as it is among the top-selling POWERBALL states in the country, exceeding more than $3.4 billion in sales, yielding $1.4 billion in education funding to date. Florida has the most jackpot winners of any other state since joining the game in 2009, 11 so far. In total, more than 63.5 million prizes have been won by Florida players, totaling $1.9 billion in prizes.
