Fourth largest Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.7 billion as Christmas rolls around the corner
By Toni Odejimi, CNN
(CNN) — Lottery hopefuls can try their luck for the estimated $1.7 billion Powerball jackpot in Wednesday’s drawing after no winners took home the grand prize Monday night.
Monday night’s winning numbers were 3, 18, 36, 41 and 54, with a Powerball of 7 and a Power Play multiplier of two, meaning most prizes were doubled in a separate drawing if people paid $1 more, according to a Powerball press release.
The jackpot is the fourth-largest in Powerball history and the second- largest this year, rivaling September’s jackpot of an estimated $1.787 billion, split between two winners in Missouri and Texas. The lottery game has generated some of the largest jackpots in US history, including the record $2.04 billion in 2022.
If it seems as if this jackpot has been rising for a long time, it has — with a record 46 drawings in the current series, according to Powerball. Wednesday’s drawing will be the 47th.
Though no one took home the big check, some winners got an early Christmas present of $1 million by matching all five white balls on Monday. These nine tickets were sold in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Multiple jackpots have been won either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, according to Powerball, but none of them have ever reached $1 billion.
If someone won tonight’s jackpot, it would be the first ticket to do so.
Lottery winners won’t see every cent of that $1.7 billion. That value — and the estimated $781.3 million lump sum — are before taxes, though a handful of states don’t tax their lottery winnings.
Jackpot winners have two options to get paid: either through an annuitized prize plan, with one upfront payment and 29 yearly payments increasing by 5%, or through one lump sum payout. The annuitized prize plan takes interest into account. Most lottery winners take the lump sum.
Before scrambling to buy a ticket, know that the odds for winning the jackpot are 1 out of 292.2 million, but odds improve for smaller prizes, some as low as $4. A ticket to play is $2.
The drawings are scheduled for every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 ET.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
