Powerball Billion Drawing

What the $1 Billion Prize Actually Pays Out

The $1 billion figure is for the annuity option. That means payments spread out over 30 years. Most winners skip that and take the lump-sum cash prize instead, according to NBC Philadelphia. The lump sum is always a smaller amount than the advertised jackpot.

Taxes take a big bite on top of that. The federal government automatically withholds 24% of lottery winnings. Then when you file your 2026 tax return, you owe another 13% in federal taxes, NBC Miami reported. State taxes may also apply depending on where you live.

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44 Drawings Without a Winner Sent the Jackpot Soaring

Powerball jackpots grow when nobody wins. Each drawing without a winner rolls the prize over to the next one. After 44 consecutive misses dating back to May 2, the pot has ballooned all the way to $1 billion, according to NBC Washington.

The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million. That extreme long shot is exactly why jackpots can go weeks and months without a winner — and why prizes can grow this large.

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Where Wednesday Night's Drawing Takes Place

The drawing happens at the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee at 10:59 p.m. ET, NBC Connecticut reported. Players pick five white ball numbers from 1 to 69, plus one red Powerball number from 1 to 26. All six must match to win the jackpot.

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How This Jackpot Compares to the All-Time Record

The largest lottery jackpot ever won in U.S. history was $2.04 billion — a Powerball prize hit in November 2022. This week's $1 billion prize is large, but still well short of that record, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Still, $1 billion puts this drawing among the biggest in lottery history. Ticket sales typically surge in the days before a drawing this large, as millions of Americans try their luck at a life-changing payout, NBC San Diego noted.

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