By Merve Berker
ANKARA (AA) – A Powerball ticket sold in the Southern US state of Arkansas matched all six numbers to win a $1.817 billion jackpot in a Christmas Eve drawing, the second-largest lottery prize in US history, Powerball said on Wednesday.
The winning numbers for the Dec. 24 draw were 4, 25, 31, 52, and 59.
The winner can choose either a lump sum payment of $834.9 million or the full prize paid out in annual installments over 30 years.
Both options are subject to taxes.
According to Powerball, the odds of hitting the jackpot are more than 1 in 292 million.
“Buying 100 tickets is like having just 100 guesses to guess that one second in a nine-year span,” Tim Chartier, a math professor at Davidson College, told ABC News.
This is the second time in 2025 that Powerball crossed the billion-dollar mark, after 46 consecutive drawings without a winner.
The third-largest prize was a $1.787 billion jackpot split by winners in Missouri and Texas in September.
Powerball's largest-ever prize remains the $2.04 billion jackpot won in California in November 2022.