One person in Illinois is suddenly a billionaire after Powerball ended its streak of 32 drawings without a winner Wednesday, awarding the largest U.S. lottery jackpot this year.
Wednesday’s jackpot was worth $1.04 billion — the largest offered by any U.S. lottery since December, when a $1.817 billion ticket was sold in Arkansas.
For those checking their numbers, the winning combination was 4, 26, 66, 67 and 69, with Powerball 9.
The jackpot winner can choose between the full $1.04 billion paid in annual installments over 29 years or a one-time lump sum of $450.5 million before taxes.
With the win, Saturday’s Powerball drawing will reset to $20 million.
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Four other players won at least $1 million each by matching all five white balls.
There have been eight winning Powerball jackpot tickets sold this year. The previous largest jackpot this year was a $250.8 million prize won March 2.
For perspective, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million. Powerball also offers smaller prizes ranging from $4 to $2 million, with the odds of winning any prize at about 1 in 25.
Powerball is played in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The lottery also recently expanded to the United Kingdom. Since the game lengthened the odds in 2015, Powerball has averaged six to nine jackpot winners annually, and all 10 of its largest jackpots have occurred since that change. The record $2.04 billion jackpot was won Nov. 7, 2022.
