California Lottery player wins $3.18 million in Powerball - could it be you?

If you purchase your Powerball tickets in Orange County, California, then you need to check your numbers from Saturday night's drawing. You could be a millionaire!

Big win in California

The big lotto win came on Saturday night in California, as one ticket in Orange County matched five correct numbers in the May 18 drawing, winning $3.18 million.

For the May 18 drawing, the winning white ball numbers were 19, 36, 37, 42, and 59, and the Powerball number was 19. The winning ticket was purchased at the Q Quick Mart, located at 540 North Magnolia Avenue in Anaheim.

Major payoffs in California

The winning ticket matched all five of the white balls, but missed out on the Powerball number. In other states, Powerball tickets with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, would be worth $1 million or $2 million.

However, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis. What does this mean? It means the payouts are determined by sales and the number of winners and could be less or more than $1 million.

Based on those details, this lucky ticket holder won $3.18 million by matching the five white ball numbers.

Powerball jackpot continues to grow

Despite the $3.18 million winning ticket in California, there were no tickets sold for Saturday's drawing that matched all six numbers. That pushes the estimated jackpot for tonight's drawing to $88 million.

This was the fifth drawing in a row where no ticket matched all six numbers. The odds of matching all five white ball numbers and the Powerball number are 1 in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning any prize in Powerball are 1 in 24.9.

Is California one of the luckiest Powerball states?

While it seems like California could be one of the luckiest states when it comes to Powerball wins, that isn't the case. Yes, the largest Powerball jackpot in U.S. history was won by Edwin Castro in Southern California. That jackpot totaled $2.04 billion, and the winning ticket was sold in November 2002 at Joe's Service Center near Los Angeles.

However, California doesn't even land in the top five for luckiest Powerball states. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia participate in the Powerball game. The drawings take place three times a week — Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

Despite the biggest jackpot win coming from California, the state that has produced the most Powerball winners is Indiana. There have been 34 jackpot winners from Indiana. However, they have not produced a jackpot winner since 2017, and yet, they still lead everyone else. In addition, Indiana was one of the original states to participate in the draw game, so it's residents have had more chances to win than some of the other states.

The remaining states making the top five for winning the most Powerball jackpots are Missouri (31), Minnesota (22), Pennsylvania (19), and Wisconsin (19).

Enjoy playing the California Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.