Gas station feels lucky to sell Puerto Rico’s first big Powerball winner

Employees at the gas station in Ponce, PR where the winning Powerball ticket was sold are feeling lucky.

“We feel like winners,” says Laisa Rodriguez, an employee at the Shell station in Coto Laurell for the past 9 years.

For the first time ever, a Puerto Rican on the island is holding a winning Powerball ticket. The winner will get $188 million of the $564 million prize.

Rodriguez is excited about the historical event. “We are so proud. I mean, this is the first time this happens in Puerto Rico!”

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It looks like this particular Shell is a winning store. In fact, the now famous location is no stranger to winning tickets. Rodriguez says several years ago, they sold the winning ticket to the local lottery.

Rodriguez says no one at the station knows who purchased the ticket.

Lottery official Antonio Perez Lopez spoke to El Nuevo Dia and said they don’t know if the winner is even from Ponce, a city on the Southern end of the island. However, he says as soon as the winner claims the prize, the name will be released.

He added that the winner will not get the entire $188 million prize if they choose the lump sum option. The governor of Puerto Rico should receive about $25 million in that case, reports the island newspaper.

The other two winners are out of North Carolina and Texas. The winning numbers are 25, 11, 54, 13 and 39, with a Powerball of 19.

The next Powerball jackpot goes back down to $40 million.

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Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington D.C, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.