$528.8 million shared Powerball winners from Chino Hills come forward
CHINO HILLS, Calif. (FOX 11) - The winners of the largest prize in California Lottery history, who purchased their winning ticket at a Chino Hills
convenience store six months ago, have come forward to claim their $528 million prize, Lottery officials announced Tuesday.
Marvin and Mae Acosta were among three big winners of the Jan. 13 Powerball jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion. The other two tickets were sold in Tennessee and Florida.
A California Lottery spokesman said the Acostas have young children and want to keep their hometown private. They waited to claim their prize while soliciting legal and financial advice, he said.
The couple were declining all requests for media interviews, according to Lottery officials, but released a statement saying they were "thankful and blessed for the rare gift that has been placed in our care.''
"We have engaged a team of advisers to educate and guide us through this process so that we can be good stewards of these new resources. While many decisions are still to be made, we have committed nearly all of this new resource to a trust and to charities that are important to us,'' their statement said.
"While we are very grateful for the wonderful wishes and encouragement we've received, it is not our intention to become public figures, and we ask for and appreciate privacy going forward.''
The Chino Hills ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven store at 492 Chino Hills Parkway.
Back in January, a large and jubilant crowd began packing the Chino Hills 7-Eleven shortly after the news broke about the sale of the jackpot ticket, with the crowd spilling into the parking lot and whooping it up late
into the night for TV news cameras.
The 7-Eleven owner received $1 million for selling the winning ticket.
Each third of the jackpot is worth $528.8 million if taken over 30 years, or $327.8 million if taken as a one-time payment. That's before federal and state taxes, however, which combined can exceed 40 percent of the total.
The Powerball game is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, but California leads the country in Powerball ticket sales.
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