Powerball player gets lucky on Christmas eve — wins second-highest jackpot worth $1.8 billion
Miracles on Christmas come in different forms for different people, and while kids look forward to gifts from Santa, many grown-ups pin their hopes on the lottery. The holiday season brought true holiday cheer to an individual who won the Powerball Christmas Eve jackpot, which was also reportedly the second-highest in the history of the US lottery. The amount won was a whopping $1.817 billion. According to a CBS report, the winner is yet to be announced, but it is reported that the winning ticket was purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas.
The winning numbers for the Christmas Eve jackpot were 4, 25, 31, 52, 59, with a Powerball of 19. The grand prize had a lump sum cash value of $834.9 million. However, as ticket sales skyrocketed leading up to Christmas Eve, the final jackpot total surged to unprecedented levels. This is only the second time in history that a Powerball jackpot was won on Christmas Eve.
The report also states that this prize money is second only to the $2.04 billion jackpot won in 2022 by a single ticket that was sold in Altadena, California. That was the largest in both Powerball and lottery history. The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot was in September of this year. The prize money at the time was $1.787 billion. This was the first time in the game’s history that back-to-back winning jackpots topped $1 billion.
The jackpot winner isn’t the only one who won big in the recent draw. Eight tickets won the $1 million prize, although the amount may vary in California, and 31 tickets won $100,000, while 114 tickets won $50,000. These tickets cost $2 each, and the jackpot amounts have risen at a ridiculous rate. The top five highest jackpot amounts, including the Christmas Eve jackpot, were all won in the last three years, according to a different CBS report. However, winning the jackpot has become a lot more difficult than before. Powerball officials believe that the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million.
Mega Millions is also an organization that organizes such lotteries and jackpots. Its spokesperson, Dan Miller, had some interesting comments about the rise in jackpot amounts. "Everyone who wins is winning more because of the embedded multiplier in the new game that takes all non-jackpot prizes and multiplies them by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X," he said. "There have been 70 drawings in the new game. In that time, players have won $531 million in non-jackpot prizes. In the old game, those same prizes would have been valued at $119.8 million. That's a 343% increase in player winnings," he explained.
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