Single ticket wins $1.82B Powerball jackpot after Christmas Eve drawing

(Gray News) – A single Powerball ticket matched all six numbers to win the $1.82 billion jackpot drawing held on Christmas Eve.

The jackpot climbed to $1.817 billion after ticket sales, making it the second-largest lottery jackpot ever won in the United States. The only higher jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in California in November 2022.

The winning ticket was sold at Murphy USA in Cabot, a little gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas, lottery officials said Thursday.

The winner will have the choice of receiving the full prize amount in 29 annual payments or a lump sum payment estimated at $834.9 million.

The winning numbers were 4, 25, 31, 52, 59 and a Powerball of 19.

In addition to the jackpot winner, eight players matched all five white balls to win $1 million. Two of them are from New York while the others are from California, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The Powerball jackpot has now reset to its starting amount of $20 million ahead of Saturday’s drawing.

Powerball tickets cost $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to the lottery.