- - Single ticket sold in Arkansas nabs $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot

Toni Odejimi, CNNDecember 25, 2025 at 7:17 AM

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A convenience store employee grabs a Powerball lottery ticket for a customer on Monday, December 22, in Portland, Oregon. - Jenny Kane/AP

It’s a very happy holiday for a lucky lottery player in Arkansas, who nabbed a $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve.

Last minute ticket sales in Wednesday’s drawing pushed the jackpot to $1.817 billion – with a cash option of $834.9 million – making it the second-largest US lottery jackpot ever, Powerball said in a statement.

The winning numbers were 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59, with red Powerball 19, and a Power Play multiplier of 2. It was the 47th drawing in this run, a record for the most in a jackpot cycle, and the largest Powerball prize of the year, the lotto said.

“Congratulations to the newest Powerball jackpot winner! This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize,” Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group Chair and Iowa Lottery CEO, said.

While there was only one big winner Wednesday, eight tickets nabbed $1 million to stuff their stockings. Those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Nationwide, 114 tickets won a $50,000 prize and 31 tickets won $100,000, Powerball said.

The Powerball jackpot now resets to $20 million for Saturday’s drawing.

The lottery game has generated some of the largest jackpots in US history, including the record $2.04 billion in 2022.

Multiple jackpots have been won either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, according to Powerball, but none of them have ever reached $1 billion – until now.

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.

The drawings are scheduled for every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 ET.

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Source: “AOL Money”