Powerball just hit a billion dollars, and people are freaking out about it.
For 39 draws in a row, no ticket matched all six numbers for the Powerball jackpot. The last draw was on Saturday night.
Now, for the next drawing on Labor Day, the jackpot has snowballed to $1.1 billion and will be the game’s fifth-largest prize ever, according to a statement from the lottery. The largest jackpot prize ever was cashed out in November 2022 by Edwin Castro, a California man who scored a $2.04 billion dollar drawing.
The five winning numbers will be announced just after 11 p.m. ET on Monday after a drawing broadcast live from the Florida Lottery drawing studios in Tallahassee.
The winner will have the option to get the full $1.1 billion as a 30-year graduated annuity or get a one-time lump sum cash payment of $498.4 million. Most winners opt for the latter option.
The prize is then subject to substantial taxes, that include an automatic withholding tax of 24% and more in federal and state taxes come next tax season. But winners in some states —California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming— are exempt from state taxes.
Monday night’s drawing will be the 40th since the last jackpot worth $204.5 million was won on May 31, 2025 by someone in California. There have been three more jackpot winners so far in 2025 besides the winner in May, three lucky winners from Oregon, Kentucky, and another from California.
The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
Here are some of our favorites
only got one number in powerball pic.twitter.com/f2xOxowNQp
— i*y (@heizehye) August 28, 2025
I have the talent of buying 5 Powerball tickets
AND
Not getting ONE number pic.twitter.com/f1qddytaQy— Erin Symons 🍀🇺🇦 (@cosmoksmom) August 25, 2025
There are two kinds of people when Powerball hits a Billion pic.twitter.com/lEMGiYOcIq
— Barrett Linburg (@DallasAptGP) August 30, 2025
didn’t win the Powerball, AND he’s still alive?? pic.twitter.com/hS19T14N2f
— pARtY (@Aryannalara_) August 31, 2025
How to play the Powerball
Powerball tickets cost $2 a piece and are sold in 45 states, plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. You can buy them from local convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, some airport terminals and even online in some states like Arizona, Massachusetts, and New York.
Then, you pick six numbers on your ticket —five white balls numbered 1 to 69 and one red Powerball numbered 1 to 26. You have to use a black or blue pen or a pencil to do so. If you can’t pick them yourself, you can ask for a “Quick Pick Powerball ticket,” and a computer will generate random numbers for you.
Then you hand in your play slip to the retailer or lottery vending machines to receive a ticket and you are all set for the results.
Come Monday night, you can tune in to the livestream drawing on the official lottery website to watch the numbers roll in. If you match all five white balls in any order, and the red Powerball, you win the mega prize.
People don’t just play for the jackpot
The winning numbers for Saturday night were 3-18-22-27-33 and the Powerball 17, but no winner matched all those numbers to hit the jackpot.
But if you don’t win jackpot on Monday you can still win smaller prizes. For those, some people also add a “Power Play,” an additional multiplier for $1 which can increase your non-jackpot winnings anywhere from 2x to 10x.
On Saturday night’s drawing, there were three $2 million winners in Colorado, Indiana and New Hampshire, and nine $1 million winners in Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and California.
Why the jackpot became so big
A number of factors go into the estimated value of a ticket price. Ultimately, it’s determined by basic gambling rules, and the number of how many tickets are purchased nationwide. The more tickets purchased means a higher jackpot pay but also lower odds of winning.
Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are very, very low. Which is also what hikes the price up. When a jackpot drawing does not match any ticket, the prize increases for the next drawing as more people continue to buy tickets.
If no ticket matches all six numbers on Monday, the Powerball jackpot will increase yet again as it goes on to a 40th drawing on Wednesday night.
The longest ever Powerball jackpot run was for 42 consecutive drawings, which ended in a $1.326 billion win for an Oregon player on April 6, 2024.
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