Morro Bay man wins $699.8 million Powerball Jackpot prize
MORRO BAY, Calif. – A Morro Bay man won the $699.8 million jackpot.
A few months ago, Scott Godfrey bought 10 lines of Powerball Quick Picks for $20 at Albertson’s on 730 Quintana Road.
On October 4, Godfrey found that he had won almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.
“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 said. “Even the times I’ve 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.”
Godfrey matched all six numbers on his winning ticket: 66-12-22-54-69 and the Powerball number 15. Godfrey beat the odds of being 1 in 292,201,338 million to win the jackpot.
The $699.8 million prize is the largest jackpot won in California Lottery history and it’s the 7th largest jackpot in U.S. history.
“I definitely looked at it more than once and even had someone else check to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things,” Godfrey said.
Godfrey took the lump-sum prize amount.
Albertsons receives the maximum retailer bonus of $1 million for selling the winning ticket.
The jackpot began on June 9 and lasted a record of 41 draws.
During its run, it provided an estimated $78 million-plus in supplemental funding for more than 10,000 public schools throughout California including those in San Luis Obispo County.
“The sole mission of the California Lottery is to raise extra money for California’s public education programs,” said Alva Johnson, the Lottery Director. “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.”
Godfrey tells the California Lottery that he and his family are private people and intend to remain that way; they have already been involved in charitable work throughout their lives and plan to scale those efforts with their new wealth.
