A single ticket sold at a gas station in western Illinois won Powerball’s $1.04 billion advertised jackpot in the August 12 drawing, drawing attention after roughly three months without a jackpot winner. 🎟️
The prize is the eighth-largest in Powerball history, according to the Associated Press. The winner can choose a one-time cash payment or an annuity of 30 increasing payments over 29 years. 💰
Powerball operates across 48 U.S. lottery jurisdictions. A $2 ticket requires five white-ball selections and one red Powerball selection; jackpot odds are 1 in 292,201,338.
Those long odds stem in part from a 2015 redesign that made jackpots harder to win, allowing them to roll over longer and grow larger. Drawings are held Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights. 🎰