Powerball Jackpot Becomes Eighth-Largest in History

After continuing to roll either side of Thanksgiving, a jackpot of $744 million was up for grabs in the draw on Monday, December 1. The winning numbers were revealed to be 5, 18, 26, 47 and 59, with a Powerball of 1. The Power Play multiplier was 3X.

There were more than 784,000 winners in Monday’s draw, including three players who matched all five main numbers and just missed out on the Powerball. These tickets were sold in California, Georgia and Illinois. The Georgia and Illinois tickets were worth $1 million each, while the Californian landed $501,453 as prizes in the Golden State are paid out on a pari-mutuel basis rather than as fixed sums.

The jackpot will now jump up into the all-time top 10 and straight into position No.8, surpassing previous wins worth $754 million, $758 million and $768 million. Go to the Biggest Winners page to learn more about all of Powerball’s top payouts.

The largest win ever was in November 2022. The jackpot climbed all the way past $2 billion before Edwin Castro from Altadena in California matched all the numbers, banking the lot. He described himself as ‘shocked and ecstatic’!

The current jackpot has been building since the September 6 big win, when a surge in ticket sales pushed the top prize up to $1.787 billion, resulting in two players splitting the money. There was one anonymous winner from Missouri, and the Seven Bridges Revocable Trust in Texas claimed the other prize.

If there is a single winner of Wednesday’s jackpot, they will have to choose between taking it as an annuity or accepting a lump sum of $362.5 million. The recent trend has been for most winners to take the cash option, but the annuity option has also proved popular in the past. Go to the Cash vs Annuity page to see a full breakdown for each claim type.

Federal taxes are withheld on all jackpot prizes, regardless of whether they are taken as cash or annuity, but the rate of state tax differs so much from location to location that some winners end up taking home far more than others. Go to the Powerball Taxes page to calculate how much you would receive in the event of a big win.

Another big difference between states is whether winners are allowed to remain anonymous or not. Some jurisdictions allow lucky players to stay private, while others regard winner information as a matter of public record. There are also other states where you can effectively shield your anonymity by claiming through a legal trust or limited liability company. See the page on Publicity Options for more information.

You’ll need to buy a ticket to give yourself a chance of becoming the next big winner. Powerball can be played in 45 states, plus Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and in some of those locations you can order tickets online through lottery couriers like Jackpot.com.