Winning Powerball ticket worth $136M sold in West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Powerball ticket worth more than $136 million has been sold in West Virginia, lottery officials said Thursday.

It was the only winning ticket in the country to match all six numbers drawn Wednesday night: 1-3-26-41-64 and a Powerball of 17, West Virginia Lottery officials said in a statement. The ticket was sold at Go Mart #93 in Hinton, which will receive a $100,000 sales bonus.

“Congratulations to the winner or winners of this incredible jackpot,” West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers said.

The winner can either take the annuitized grand prize of $136.4 million paid out over 29 years or the cash option of $108 million, officials said.

The Powerball jackpot for Saturday’s drawing resets to $20 million.

It is the ninth grand-prize Powerball ticket sold in West Virginia and the first in a decade.

W. Randy Smith, a former Berkeley County sheriff and magistrate, won a $79 million Powerball jackpot in 2010. He chose the $44 million cash option and pocketed $30 million after taxes.

Among the other jackpot winners was Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia contractor who won a nearly $315 million Powerball jackpot in 2002. At the time it was the largest U.S. lottery jackpot won by a single ticket. Whittaker quickly fell victim to scandals, lawsuits and personal setbacks.