Powerball lottery winner lands $1.8bn Christmas jackpot

A ticket sold in Arkansas claimed a $1.8bn Powerball jackpot following Wednesday night's draw, making it one of the largest lottery prizes in US history and arriving just in time for Christmas.

The jackpot had surged after Monday's draw produced no winners, with last-minute ticket sales pushing the total to $1.817bn (£1.36bn). It is the second-largest US lottery prize ever and the biggest Powerball of 2025, according to the Powerball website.

The winning numbers - 4, 25, 31, 52, 59 and the Powerball 19 - were drawn shortly before midnight. The odds of hitting the jackpot? A staggering one in 292.2 million.

Wednesday's Powerball drawing was the 47th in the current jackpot run, making it the longest run of drawings the prize had gone without being claimed, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. This marks only the second time Arkansas has produced a Powerball jackpot winner, the first being in 2010.

Powerball tickets cost $2 each. The winner can choose between an annuitised payout of $1.8bn over 29 years or a lump-sum cash option of roughly $834.9m (£623m) before taxes.

The previous Powerball jackpot was claimed on 6 September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas, which shared a $1.787bn (£1.33bn) prize. Jackpots grow when no one wins, though the odds are far better for the smaller prizes.

"This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize," said Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group chair and CEO of the Iowa Lottery. Historically, the jackpot has been won once on Christmas Eve in 2011 and four times on Christmas Day.

New York musician Richie Vitale, 71, who had bought five tickets on Wednesday, said: "The chance of winning the lottery is, like, less than getting hit by lightning, and sometimes I think my lottery is going to get hit by lightning. "I think, 'Let's be more hopeful and take a chance,' and I don't buy lottery tickets all the time." Read more from Sky News:Kate and Princess Charlotte perform piano duet for ChristmasTrump tells children about 'beautiful' coal in Christmas call Nationwide, nine secondary prizes of $1m (£747,000) were claimed in Monday's draw.

"I came out in the rain to get the winning ticket, and I just bought the winning ticket. So everybody else can stay home.

I'm getting it. I'll share it with you," said John Campbell, a Long Beach, California resident.

Asked what else he would do with the money, Campbell said he will share it with the homeless. "I'm tired of seeing them sleeping on the street." The largest US lottery prize on record remains a Powerball jackpot of $2.04bn (£1.52bn), won in California in 2022.

Large jackpots tend to boost ticket sales, which in turn increases revenue for state lottery funds that support education and other public spending. "It's scary, scary and exciting and a little bit daunting because what would one do with so much money? But we'll see, we hope," said New York theatre director Carl Schmehl..