One of the mysteries surrounding the Powerball jackpot lottery of $338.3M was solved on 25th March, which is that New Jersey is the location where the highly-desired ticket was sold. However, there was another bigger mystery to be solved. Who purchased it? 

It was announced by lottery officials of New Jersey that the ticket had been sold by a liquor shop in the city of Passaic, which is 15 miles from New York City towards the northwest. However, there was no update from the winner who has only a year to come forward and lay his claim over the prize. 

The owner of Eagle Liqours, Sunil Sethi, maintained that they are being told by a number of people that they got the prize. However, it has not been confirmed by anyone yet. The ticket was sold by an employee of the liquor store, Pravin Mankodia, who is 67 years old and has worked at the store for 7 years. According to him, it was an awesome feeling and they felt really lucky. An amount of $10,000 will be given to the store. The owner stated that a portion of the money will probably be used by him for fixing up the shop and sharing some with his employees. 

As everybody came to know that the ticket was sold by Eagle, some patrons immediately started dreaming about what they would have done had they won the lottery. A self-confessedly scrap man, James Brown aged 56 and belonging to Passaic said that if he had won the jackpot money, he would have gone back to his dearest home state. He added that though he likes it here, if he had really won the lottery, he would have returned to South Carolina and led a retired life there. In fact, lottery tickets are bought by Brown on a daily basis, that too twice, and he maintains that he will continue to do so. 

As far as other patrons are concerned, they were excited because someone from their area had gotten lucky with the big jackpot. Gloria Brinson who religiously purchases lottery tickets every week at the store, said that it was high time somebody from Passaic earned something. 

25% and 3% of the jackpot will be owed by the winner in federal taxes and state taxes respectively. It means around $59 million has to be paid by him. After deducting the taxes, the jackpot’s cash value is around $152 million that is if a lump-sum amount of $221 million is chosen by the winner instead of an annuity. It was stated by Carole Hedinger, state lottery director, that it is quite unusual for any big winner to bid his time and wait for a couple of days before laying his claim on the prize.  According to the lottery officials, it was the 4th largest jackpot in the history of Powerball. 

Powerball is a game that is played in forty two states in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C. There are five numbers in total which have to be matched, the chances of which are around one in 175 million.