Two people who bought lottery tickets in Missouri and Texas will split second-largest US jackpot

Powerball players in Missouri and Texas won the nearly $1.8bn jackpot on Saturday, the US’s second largest lottery prize ever.

They overcame astronomical odds to end a three-month drought without a big winner for the nationwide lottery game.

The winning numbers were 11, 23, 44, 61, and 62, with the Powerball number being 17.

The winning ticket in Texas was sold at a gas station-convenience store in Fredericksburg, according to the Texas Lottery.

The $1.787bn prize followed 41 consecutive drawings in which no one matched all six numbers. The last drawing with a jackpot winner happened 31 May.

Powerball’s terrible odds of one in 292.2m are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes growing as they roll over when no one wins. Lottery officials note that the odds are far better for the game’s many smaller prizes. There are three drawings each week.

Each ticket holder will have the choice between an annuitized prize of $893.5m or a lump sum payment of $410.3m. Both prize options are before taxes. If a winner selects the annuity option, they will receive one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year. Powerball tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

The largest-ever lottery jackpot was $2.04bn, won in November 2022 by California resident Edwin Castro.

Castro later bought a five-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion worth $25.5m in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills. He also successfully defended himself from a lawsuit in which the plaintiff claimed that he – not Castro – was the rightful owner of the historic lottery ticket.