Picnews
A lucky Powerball player in Arkansas has won a whopping $1.817 billion jackpot, the second-largest in US lottery history, just in time for Christmas. The winning ticket was sold in Cabot, a small town northeast of Little Rock, and matched the numbers 4, 25, 31, 52, 59, and Powerball 19.
This jackpot is the largest Powerball prize of 2025 and has been building up for 47 consecutive drawings, a record for the most drawings in a single cycle. The winner has the option to take the full prize paid out over 29 years or opt for a lump-sum cash payment of $834.9 million before taxes.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are incredibly low, at 1 in 292.2 million, but someone finally beat them on Christmas Eve. The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011, and the game has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.
The winning ticket was sold at a location in Cabot, Arkansas, and the winner has yet to come forward publicly. Powerball tickets are available in 45 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and cost $2 per play.
This isn’t the first time Arkansas has produced a Powerball jackpot winner – the first was back in 2010. The win is expected to support public programs and services across the country, as a portion of Powerball ticket sales goes towards funding these initiatives.
Other winners in the same drawing included eight players who matched all five white balls, winning $1 million each, and 114 tickets that won $50,000 prizes.
