Arkansas ticket scoops $1.8 billion in Christmas Powerball jackpot

By Aleksandra Michalska , Alan Devall and Mrinmay Dey NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES, Dec 25 (Reuters) – A ticket sold in Arkansas scored a $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot after Wednesday night's draw — one of the richest lottery prizes in U.S. history, landing just in time for Christmas. The payout soared after Monday’s drawing produced no winners, with last-minute ticket sales pushing the jackpot to $1.817 billion. That makes it the second-largest U.S. lottery prize ever and the biggest Powerball of 2025, the lottery website said on Thursday. The winning numbers — 4, 25, 31, 52, 59 and the Powerball 19 — were drawn about an hour before midnight. The odds of hitting the jackpot? A staggering one in 292.2 million. It was only the second time Arkansas has produced a Powerball jackpot winner. The first was back in 2010. Powerball tickets cost $2 each. The lucky winner can choose between an annuitized payout of $1.8 billion over 29 years or a lump-sum cash option of roughly $834.9 million before taxes, according to the lottery website. WISHFUL THINKING The Powerball jackpot was previously won on September 6 by two tickets in Missouri and Texas that split a $1.787 billion prize. Jackpots grow as they roll over when no one wins, though the odds are far better for the game's smaller prizes. "This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize," said Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group chair and Iowa Lottery CEO. The jackpot has been won once on Christmas Eve in 2011 and four times on Christmas Day. "The chance of winning the lottery is, like, less than getting hit by lightning, and sometimes I think my lottery is going to get hit by lightning," said New York musician Richie Vitale, 71, showing five lottery tickets he had bought on Wednesday. "I think, 'Let's be more hopeful and take a chance,' and I don't buy lottery tickets all the time." Nationwide, nine secondary prizes of $1 million were claimed in the last drawing on Monday. "I came out in the rain to get the winning ticket, and I just bought the winning ticket. So everybody else can stay home. I'm getting it. I'll share it with you," said Long Beach, California, resident John Campbell.  Asked what else he would do with the money, Campbell said he would share it with the homeless. "I'm tired of seeing them sleeping on the street," he said. The largest U.S. lottery prize ever was a Powerball jackpot of $2.04 billion, won in California in 2022. Large jackpots tend to bolster ticket sales, boosting revenue for state lottery funds that support education and other public spending. "It's scary, scary and exciting and a little bit daunting because what would one do with so much money? But we'll see, we hope," said New York theater director Carl Schmehl after buying tickets. "I would like to try to give a lot of money away and help people and, I don't know, share it." (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Howard Goller and William Mallard)

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