Powerball winner enters Forbes list of world's richest people

Last November 8, 2022, the lottery world was on tenterhooks waiting to know the results of that day's Powerball drawing, which had reached a historic figure never before drawn of $1.9 billion, which later rose to $2.04 billion after the amounts were readjusted.

That day, after a delay in the counting of bets that postponed the results of the drawing, the numbers that had won the prize were finally announced: 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and the 10 in the Powerball spot. A single ticket, sold in California, was announced as the winner of the entire multi-million dollar prize, beating the odds of winning one of the world's most famous lotteries by 1 to more than 292 million.

However, the identity of this mysterious winner remained anonymous until it was recently disclosed when he had to go to claim the prize. The laws of the State of California, where he had purchased his ticket, require lottery jackpot winners to make their identity public, so the California Lottery had already announced that, at the time the winner wanted to collect the prize (for which he had a period of 1 year after the drawing), he should make his name public.

Thus, in February of this year, at the prize-giving ceremony, the California Lottery revealed the identity of the winner: a Hispanic descendant named Edwin Castro, although not much more information is known about him, since he preferred not to participate in the ceremony.

What is certain is that Castro, who has preferred to stay away from the media spotlight, only declared to be "shocked and ecstatic" for having won the millionaire prize. And he is right: it recently became known that his new wealth, acquired thanks to the lottery, has made him the 1,292nd richest person in the world, according to the prestigious list published every year by Forbes magazine.

How much money did Castro really win playing Powerball?

Although the historic Powerball figure reached $2.04 billion, it is known that Castro only truly walked away with about $997.6 million, a little less than half of the advertised prize amount.

Why is this? The truth is that the amount announced by the lottery in each drawing corresponds to the total amount collected by the lottery, but in order to obtain the real amount of the prize, it is necessary to remove the percentage corresponding to taxes. This means that those winners who choose to collect the prize in a single cash payment will receive less than the amount announced after the reduction of the corresponding federal and state taxes.

California Public Schools: The Other Winners

In his only statement, Castro commented that, "As someone who received the reward of being educated in California's public education system, it is gratifying to hear that, as a result of my award, California's school system also benefits greatly."

But why is Castro glad that his award helps California's public schools? A law in this U.S. state provides for certain lottery contributions to the public school system following the awarding of prizes. In this case, Castro's prize will allow public schools to receive some $156.3 million in matching funds, which is also a record amount for the school system. Thus, the award will be shared among all schools in the state based on average daily attendance records.