Lottery identifies Morro Bay Powerball winner. Here’s how he plans to use his $496 million
The winner of California’s largest jackpot ever has been revealed.
On Oct. 4, the California Lottery announced it had a winner for a record-setting, $699 million jackpot — and Scott Godfrey had the golden ticket, the Lottery said Thursday in a news release.
Godfrey’s winning ticket matched the six numbers 66-12-22-54-69 and the Powerball number 15, according to the release.
“It feels great to win big, of course, but I’m especially happy that this jackpot means $78 million was raised for California public education,” Godfrey said in the news release. “Even the times I’ve played in the past and didn’t win, I always felt, well, at least a few bucks of this will be going to help schools.”
The California Lottery held the first draw on June 9 but failed to match a ticket to the winning number for four months until Godfrey walked into the Morro Bay Albertsons at 730 Quintana Road.
Interestingly, the winning combination was the first set of numbers on his ticket of 10 quick picks.
This drawing was the fifth-largest jackpot in Powerball history and seventh-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.
Godfrey opted to take the lump sum of cash, which adds up to about $496 million after taxes, according to the release.
Godfrey’s giving nature was even more clear after he spoke with KSBY on Thursday.
The lucky winner stopped by the KSBY studios yesterday to drop-off a car full of toys for the station’s Season of Hope toy drive and told anchor Nina Lozano that his family had set up a foundation to distribute the money to various charitable organizations.
“We are private people, and we intend to stay that way,” Godfrey said in the release. “We’ve also, for a long time, been involved in charitable activities, and now we can really scale those efforts to take full appreciation of this blessing. This money is not about me. It’s about all of the good that can come from it.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 4:39 PM.
