Powerball’s $1 billion jackpot won by a single ticket. See the winning numbers.

The eighth-largest Powerball jackpot in history was won Wednesday night by a single ticket in Illinois.

The winning balls were 4, 26, 66, 67, 69 and red Powerball 9. The Power Play multiplier was 2.

Final ticket sales pushed the final jackpot to $1.04 billion, making it the largest Powerball prize won this year.

Three tickets sold in Arizona, Florida and North Carolina matched all five white balls to win a Match 5 cash prize of $1 million.

A ticket in California also won the Match 5 prize — final payouts in the state are pari-mutuel (in which all wagers are pooled together) and determined by ticket sales and the number of winners. A fifth ticket sold in Massachusetts also matched all five white balls. Its winnings increased to $2 million because it included the Power Play option.

How much will the jackpot winner actually take home? And can they keep their identity secret?

Can Powerball winners remain anonymous?

In some states, yes. The rules vary widely across the country, with some states offering winners broad anonymity and others providing privacy only in certain circumstances.

Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri and South Carolina are among the states where winners can generally keep their identities private. Others, including Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas and West Virginia, provide protections for qualifying prizes.

Some states impose different restrictions. North Carolina, for example, provides certain large-prize winners with only a limited period of anonymity, while trusts or other legal entities can offer another route to privacy in some jurisdictions.

Virginia changed its protections on July 1, 2026, to ensure anonymity for any lottery winner. 

In Illinois, someone who wins a prize of $250,000 or greater can choose to remain anonymous.

In many other states, however, at least some information about lottery winners is considered public record and can be disclosed.

Why do some states identify lottery winners?

States that name lottery winners typically point to transparency and public trust. Making winners public provides proof that jackpots are going to real people and helps assure players that state-run games are above board.

But lawmakers in a number of states have changed the rules in recent decades amid concerns that winners whose identities are made public can become targets for criminals, scammers and people seeking money.

Lottery lawyer Kurt Panouses, who has represented winners of jackpots worth hundreds of millions of dollars, advises clients to limit their exposure where possible. That can include using intermediaries and even claiming prizes on busy news days, such as Election Day, to attract less attention.

Panouses regularly fields inquiries from people who are trying to reach his clients, including, investors, scammers and people seeking financial help.

“It’s hard for people who don’t have the experience or life perspective to say no,” Panouses told the Associated Press.

How much could the $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot winner actually take home?

There are two ways for winners to claim their money — either in a one-off, lump sum payment , or an annuity paid out over 29 years.

In terms of the $1.04 billion jackpot, the lump sum cash value is $450.5 million, according to the Powerball website.

Winners will then face a 24% federal withholding tax plus additional federal taxes from being in the top tax bracket — bringing the total to 37%.

State and local taxes reduce the payout further, depending on where the ticket was purchased. According to the USA Mega website, New York has a top state income-tax rate of 10.9%, while states including Texas, Florida and California do not tax lottery winnings.

That means a winner in New York state might expect to take home a lump sum payment of around $234 million (New York City has even more taxes), while someone in California could expect to win about $284 million.

Those opting for the annuity will get 30 annual payments that increase by 5% each time. That means the first payment will be the smallest, and the final payment the largest. Again, the size of the payments vary from state to state due to local taxes.

What are the odds of winning Powerball?

The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. 

By comparison, you’re 240 times more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year than to win Powerball with a single ticket.

In total, the overall odds of winning a prize of any type are 1 in 24.87.

When was the previous big Powerball win?

Nobody had won the grand prize since May 2, 2026, when two tickets in Florida and Texas split a $20 million prize. There had been just seven payouts larger than this in the past 10 years.

The most recent top 10 payout saw one lucky player, who bought the winning ticket at a gas station in Cabot, Ark., get a memorable Christmas present when they won the $1.817 billion jackpot on Dec. 24, 2025.

The largest Powerball payout was just over $2 billion from a ticket bought in 2022 in California.

The top 10 payouts are shown in the table below.