The infamous Powerball lottery drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET. The prize money is enough to set people and their families up for life, but what happens when nobody can seem to win the prize?
The Powerball is an American lottery offered by 45 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It consists of drawing five white balls with numbers one through 69 and a red Powerball with numbers one through 26. When drawn, a person can only win once per panel. The prize can range from $4 to $2.04 billion–the highest Powerball ever.
On Monday, Sept. 1, the Powerball drawing was scheduled for 10:59 p.m. ET and had an estimated $1.2 billion prize, with a cash value of $544.1 million. The jackpot had been rolling over since May 31, 2025, but with no one winning, it went on to Wednesday, Sept. 3’s drawing with a whopping $1.3 billion prize. Gas station convenience stores all over had tickets flying off the shelves and cash registers opening and closing frantically as customers shoved money into the clerk’s hands, all to have even the slightest chance of winning. After all the frenzy, the numbers were drawn, and no one won once again. The prize then rose to nearly $1.8 billion for Saturday, Sept. 6’s drawing, which is the second-highest amount ever, and with a 1 in 292 million chance of winning, the stakes were high.
When the numbers 11, 23, 44, 61 and 62 with a red Powerball of 17 were drawn out, celebration could be heard in Texas and Missouri, where the lucky winners reside. The town of Fredericksburg, Texas, was especially surprised as they had been hit with a devastating flood that killed more than 100 people, so having the winner come from a new gas station convenience store was astonishing. The second was revealed to be in north St. Louis County, but unlike Texas, the identity of the winner was not announced.
After winning the Powerball, winners may choose to either get the prize money in a lump payment or an annuity, paid in 30 payments over the next 29 years. Many choose to get the lump payment and invest it, while others favor the steady flow of money over the next three decades. One downside to choosing the lump sum of money is that they would receive slightly less than the actual jackpot amount, and would pay taxes on it the year they collect it. If they choose the annuity, each year that they receive the money, the payments would increase by five percent to keep up with inflation.
