LOS ANGELES, CA – California lottery officials on Friday announced the winner of last year’s $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot, the second largest in United States history.
The California Lottery identified Theodorus Struyck as the winner, representing a group of people who bought the ticket together at Midway Market in Frazier Park in October. The announcement ends months of suspense about the identity of the mystery billionaire.
It comes almost six months after the historic win that also earned the family that owns the market in Kern County a $1 million bonus check.
The ticket hit the jackpot on the 36th draw for that Powerball sequence. It was a run that allowed the California Lottery to raise an additional $119.5 million for public schools, according to lottery officials.
The win came on the heels of the largest jackpot ever — a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot sold in Altadena in Los County and claimed in 2023. California Lottery players have won, or co-won, the top four largest jackpots in Powerball history — all worth more than $1 billion.
“Announcing big wins like this gives all of our players the chance to hope and dream that they could be next,” said California Lottery Director Harjinder K. Shergill Chima. “But it also gives us an opportunity to shine the spotlight on our terrific mission, which is to generate additional, supplemental funding for public education in California.”
For every Powerball or Mega Millions ticket sold in California, approximately 80 cents goes
toward public schools, according to the lottery.
Once again, the Power jackpot is climbing. Saturday’s jackpot is currently estimated to be $600 million.
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