The Latest: Transcription error led to lottery shop mistake
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Latest on the lone winning ticket for the $758.7 million Powerball drawing that was sold in Chicopee, Massachusetts (all times local):
10 a.m.
The head of the Massachusetts State Lottery says a transcription error led the organization to wrongly identify the store that sold the lone winning Powerball ticket.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a statement issued Thursday morning, lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney says officials were manually recording the names of the retailers that sold the winning ticket for the $758.7 million jackpot, as well as two tickets that won $1 million prizes. He says they transcribed it incorrectly.
Sweeney issued an apology for the confusion created by the error, but said lottery staff remained thrilled that a jackpot winning ticket and two $1 million winning tickets were sold in Massachusetts.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}9 a.m.
The Massachusetts store that sold the winning Powerball ticket was initially told it sold a $1 million ticket, not the only ticket that won the $758.7 million jackpot.
Mike Donatelli, a spokesman for the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, Massachusetts, says they were told shortly before 8 a.m. that the store had actually sold that ticket. The jackpot is the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Donatelli says the founder of the chain, Bob Bolduc, plans to hold news conferences at 10 a.m. and at noon. The store is part of a chain that operates in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.
The Chicopee store will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Lottery officials had initially said a different store, near Boston, had sold the winning ticket. That store actually sold a ticket that won $1 million.
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8: 30 a.m.
The error by the Massachusetts State Lottery over which store sold the lone winning Powerball ticket is being blamed on nerves.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Michael Sweeney, the lottery's executive director, tells WBZ-AM they had a "couple of excited people at 1 o'clock in the morning" but said if there's any blame to be placed, the buck stops with him.
The lottery initially said a convenience store in Watertown had sold the winning ticket. A few hours later, it announced it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket was sold across the state at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, in Western Massachusetts.
Sweeney says the lottery had not yet heard from the winner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He said the Chicopee store will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket, he said.
He said the store in Watertown did sell a ticket that won a $1 million prize.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}8 a.m.
Massachusetts State Lottery officials have corrected the site where the single winning ticket for the Powerball $758.7 million jackpot was sold to Chicopee, not Watertown.
The Massachusetts State Lottery had announced around 2:30 a.m. Thursday that a convenience store in Watertown, near Boston, had sold the winning ticket.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But shortly before 8 a.m., the lottery said it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket was sold across the state at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, in Western Massachusetts.
The lottery did not say how the error was made .
It said the store in Watertown did sell a ticket that won a $1 million prize.