Man devastated after finding out he was one number away from winning $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot
One man was one measly number away from becoming a billionaire, so close and yet so far.
One man came so agonisingly close to winning a $2 billion jackpot after being one number away from the Powerball.
Some lucky son of a gun has just made history with the biggest lottery win of all time after raking in the Powerball jackpot of $2.04 billion.
The winning ticket, bought in Altadena, California, put down the numbers 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and the Powerball of 10 again.
Advert
Apparently the odds of picking the correct numbers to win the incredible prize were one in 292.2 million, so it's amazing that someone's actually won the thing.
What's even more incredible is how close some people came to getting the right numbers themselves, and yet how far away they were from unimaginable wealth.
And that's what happened to Nicholas Carrillo, who guessed all of the numbers correctly apart from 47, instead putting 49 on his ticket and ending up just one number away from being the biggest lottery winner ever.
Posting his lack of luck to TikTok, Nicholas compared his ticket to the Powerball numbers to show everyone just how close he'd come.
With the video captioned 'one number away from becoming a billionaire', it ended with an image of Nicholas giving himself the mother of all facepalms.
Commenting on his TikTok, lots of people said it was 'better than nothing', while others said they'd 'have that ticket if you don't want it'.
More sympathised at having come so close to the biggest jackpot of all time, saying it must be 'so painful' to be one number away from $2 billion.
It's hard not to feel for the guy, though he won't be going away empty handed after guessing four correct numbers and the Powerball.
The unlucky guy will still be getting about $50,000, though if he'd got the five regular numbers right and the Powerball wrong, his consolation prize would have been a million dollars.
Speaking of getting a million dollars worth of prize money, the store owner who sold the winning ticket has also been in line for a jackpot of his own, as Joe Chahayed, owner of Joe's Service Center, was awarded $1 million for selling the $2 billion ticket to fortune.
He promised he'd share the money among his family, including with his 11 grandchildren and said he was 'excited' at the prospect of the incredible jackpot going to a local.
Then again, perhaps this lottery stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be as the winner could end up with only $628 million once taxes had taken their share, which is still not to be sniffed at.
The lucky winner will have a choice between taking the lump sum, which drops the jackpot from $2.04 billion down to $997.6 million before tax.
And if they want to keep the full amount, they'll have to receive it in 30 annual payments worth $68 million a year, though that's also before tax.
It's still a life changing amount, and making some money is better than losing your ticket because your dog ate it, or winning the money and not telling your family so they don't get lazy.
Joe Harker