Oops: Wrong store initially listed for winning Powerball ticket

A mistake made by the Massachusetts State Lottery added some intrigue into the revelation Thursday that a single winning Powerball ticket had been sold.

According to the Associated Press, lottery officials in Massachusetts initially bungled their announcement, offering the wrong merchant and location.

Early Thursday morning, lottery officials corrected the site where the single winning ticket was sold to Chicopee, Massachusetts. Overnight, they had announced the winning ticket was sold at a shop in Watertown, just outside Boston.

But shortly before 8 a.m., the lottery said it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket – worth nearly $760 million – was sold at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, about halfway across the state.

Lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney said officials were manually recording the names of the retailers that sold the winning ticket and transcribed it incorrectly, according to the Associated Press.

Sweeney issued an apology for the confusion created by the error, but said lottery staff remained thrilled that a jackpot winning ticket and two $1 million winning tickets were sold in Massachusetts – one of those at the Watertown location.

Lottery officials said the owner of the winning ticket, worth $758.7 million, was set to be introduced during a noon news conference on Thursday. The prize represents the largest jackpot won by a single ticket in U.S. lottery history.

If the winner chooses a cash option, the ticket would be worth about $480 million. The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were 6-7-16-23-26 with a Powerball of 4.

While the lucky Powerball ticket wasn’t sold in the Sunflower State, state lottery spokeswoman Sally Lunsford said two “Hot Lotto” tickets for the Wednesday drawing worth $3,000 each were sold in south-central Kansas.

For Saturday’s drawing, the new Powerball jackpot will be a paltry $40 million. The Powerball game is played in 44 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 7:11 AM with the headline "Oops: Wrong store initially listed for winning Powerball ticket."