A Powerball participant in Arkansas is getting an unforgettable present for the vacations — a ticket bought there matched all six numbers to win a $1.817 billion jackpot — the second greatest U.S. lottery prize ever, in line with Powerball.
The successful numbers picked in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing have been: 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59 with Powerball 19.
The winner has the selection between a lump sum money cost of $834.9 million or an annuitized prize paid out over about 30 years of the complete prize quantity. Each choices are earlier than taxes.
The Christmas Eve jackpot was the sport’s second billion-dollar-plus prize this yr after 46 consecutive attracts with out a winner.
A $1.787 billion Powerball jackpot that was gained in September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas was the third-largest prize in U.S. lottery historical past.
On this July 18, 2023, file photograph, Powerball play slips are displayed in a comfort retailer in Los Angeles.
Mario Tama/Getty Photos, FILE
The chances of successful the Powerball jackpot are 1 in over 292 million, according to Powerball.
Prospects wait in line to buy lottery tickets on Dec. 1, 2025, in Hawthorne, Calif.
Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Occasions by way of Getty Photos
Tim Chartier, a professor of arithmetic and laptop science at Davidson Faculty, likened attempting to win the Powerball jackpot with these odds to deciding on a particular second over a nine-year span, after which trying to guess that particular second. He advised ABC Information that purchasing extra tickets does improve a participant’s odds of successful – however solely marginally.
“When you purchase 100 tickets, it is true that you just truly multiply your probability of successful by 100,” Chartier mentioned, but additionally famous that “shopping for 100 tickets is like having simply 100 guesses to guess that one second in a nine-year span, so it is nonetheless not terribly doubtless.”
A clerk shows Powerball lottery tickets at a comfort retailer on December 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Photos
You’ll be able to watch the drawing reside on the Powerball website.
High 10 Powerball jackpots and successful states
1. $2.04 billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – California
2. $1.817 billion (present jackpot) – Arkansas
3. $1.787 billion – Sept. 6, 2025 – Missouri, Texas
4. $1.765 billion – Oct. 11, 2023 – California
5. $1.586 billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – California, Florida, Tennessee
6. $1.326 billion – April 6, 2024 – Oregon
7. $1.08 billion – July 19, 2023 – California
8. $842.4 million – Jan. 1, 2024 – Michigan
9. $768.4 million – March 27, 2019 – Wisconsin
10. $758.7 million – Aug. 23, 2017 – Massachusetts
