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Santa might be delivering an estimated $1.817 billion jackpot in Christmas Eve’s Powerball drawing.
The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing — the fourth largest jackpot in both Powerball and U.S. lottery history — are 4, 25, 31, 52, 59, with a Powerball of 19. The jackpot has an estimated lump sum cash value of $781.3 million before taxes.
It was still unknown if there was a winning ticket.
Wednesday’s drawing is the 47th in the current jackpot run, a record for the most in a Powerball jackpot cycle, the game said. If no tickets come up winners, the prize will climb even higher for Saturday night’s drawing. The last time a Powerball jackpot hit was on Sept. 6 in Missouri and Texas, when two tickets split a $1.787 billion top prize.
The Powerball jackpot has been won just once on Christmas Eve, in 2011, and four times on Christmas Day, the game said. Powerball started in 1992.
To win the jackpot, a ticket must match all five white balls and the red Powerball pulled during a drawing. A single jackpot winner will have the choice of the lump sum payment or a payout via an annuity that would consist of one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year. Both the lump sum cash estimate and the annuity estimate are before taxes.
This is only the second time in the game’s history with back-to-back jackpots exceeding $1 billion, Powerball said.
In 2022, a single ticket sold in Altadena, California, claimed a $2.04 billion jackpot, the largest in both Powerball and lottery history. The first Powerball drawing was in 1992.
The odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball. Lottery jackpots have exploded in size over the last decade, while the odds of winning have gotten even slimmer.
In 2015, Powerball increased the number of white balls in the game from 59 to 69, and decreased the number of red balls from 35 to 26. Before that change, the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 175.2 million.
Tickets cost $2 each and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11 p.m. ET.
