Powerball · United States · 7 May 2016
Pearlie Mae Smith, a Trenton church pastor who rarely gambled, bought the ticket at the 7-Eleven at 750 Chambers Street in Trenton, playing numbers her family says came to her in a dream. She and her seven adult children claimed as a group, The Smith Family Lottery Pool.
Advertised prize
$429,600,000
Cash value $284,000,000
Ticket
Syndicate or office pool
Outcome
Gave it away
Gave away most or all of the prize.
Pearlie Mae Smith, a 70-year-old Trenton church pastor who rarely gambled, bought a Powerball ticket at the 7-Eleven at 750 Chambers Street in Trenton, playing a set of numbers her family says came to her in a dream. The May 7, 2016 drawing produced 5, 25, 26, 44, 66 and Powerball 9, and her ticket was the sole winner of $429.6 million - the largest prize in New Jersey Lottery history. Smith claimed alongside her seven adult children - Valerie Marie Arthur, Steven Elliot Smith, Jacqueline Sessoms, Marsha-Ann Rebecca Smith, Tracy Angela Smith, Katherine Nicole Nunnally and Rene Bethina Smith - as The Smith Family Lottery Pool. They took the cash option of $284 million rather than the 29-year annuity, split eight ways. 'Divine intervention provided the winning numbers to my mother in a dream,' Arthur told the New Jersey Lottery press conference. Before claiming, the family consulted professional advisers, a life coach and previous jackpot winners. They said they would tithe 10 percent to their Pentecostal church, pay off mortgages and student loans and give back to Trenton. Family members each put part of their share into the Smith Family Foundation, a private grantmaker founded in Trenton in 2016.
The Smith Family Foundation of New Jersey is still operating out of Trenton. Its own site marks 2016-2026 as a decade of service and reports that in 2024 it supported 40-plus nonprofit leaders and awarded more than $40,000 in scholarships, with awards of up to $5,000 for college, vo-tech and adult trade students.
One detail worth keeping
The matriarch is a church pastor who rarely gambled; her daughter told the official press conference the winning numbers reached her mother in a dream.
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$2,040,000,000
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Manuel Franco
Stayed privatePowerball · United States · 2019
$768,400,000
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Ended in tragedyPowerball · United States · 2024
$1,326,000,000
Laiza Chao joked to the Saephans before the draw that they were already "billionaires"; her $100 stake in a 20-ticket batch made it true.
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Stayed privatePowerball · United States · 2023
$1,765,000,000
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Saltines Holdings, LLC (Miami, Florida)
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$1,602,000,000
The biggest Mega Millions winner in history is a company: Saltines Holdings, LLC of Miami. The Publix that sold the $2 Quick Pick collected a $100,000 retailer bonus.
Edwin Castro
Went wellPowerball · United States · 2022
$2,040,000,000
The draw ran a day late: Minnesota's sales-verification system held up all 48 lotteries, so the $2.04bn numbers were drawn at 8:57 a.m. ET on 8 November 2022.
Every figure and quotation above comes from these.
Last verified: 2026-09-13