The Minnesota Lottery has taken responsibility for the delay in Monday evening's Powerball drawing, which left millions of Americans on the edge of their seats overnight before results were eventually announced on Tuesday.
Minnesota Lottery officials confirmed the delay was caused by a processing issue in their lottery, and offered the following statement to NBC 5 Chicago:
"After unprecedented lottery interest, Minnesota’s lottery sales verification system caused a processing delay on Monday, Nov. 7. The delay was necessary to confirm the Powerball drawing could be conducted securely and accurately. At no time was the integrity of the process compromised."
According to Drew Svitko, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Lottery, the process in the event of an issue played out as it should have.
"What happened in this case was exactly what was supposed to happen. We postpone the drawing until we're sure that everybody's done all their procedures, and we can be sure that we have a secure drawing. So the process was designed as an inconvenience. It's not that unusual that we have a slight delay, although last night was more significant because of the size of the jackpot and the length of the delay," Svitko said.
At 10:07 p.m. Monday, eight minutes after the winning numbers of the historic $1.9 billion Powerball drawing were scheduled to be revealed, lottery officials made an announcement.
"Tonight’s Powerball drawing has been delayed due to a participating lottery needing extra time to complete the required security protocols," The California Lottery tweeted. "Powerball has strict security requirements that must be met by all 48 lotteries before a drawing can occur."
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"When the required security protocols are complete, the drawing will be performed under the supervision of lottery security officials and independent auditors," the statement went on to say. "Winning numbers will be posted as soon as they are available. Thank you for your patience."
Lottery officials confirmed on Tuesday that at least one winning ticket had been sold in California, taking home a jackpot of $2.04 billion that was further increased by last-minute ticket sales.
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The prize marks the largest ever in lottery history. The jackpot had been rolling higher through thrice-weekly drawings since Aug. 3, when a ticket in Pennsylvania scored $206.9 million.
The pretax cash lump sum of the jackpot amounts to $997.6 million, dwarfing the jackpot of the previous Powerball winner.
