Arkansas ticket nabs $1.8B Powerball jackpot; 3 Georgia tickets net $50K

A Powerball ticket purchased outside Little Rock, Arkansas, won a $1.817 billion jackpot in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing, ending the lottery game’s three-month stretch without a top-prize winner.

In Georgia, three tickets won $50,000 each for matching four white-ball numbers and the red Powerball.

The winning numbers were 04, 25, 31, 52 and 59, with the Powerball number being 19. The winning ticket was sold in Cabot, lottery officials in Arkansas said Thursday. The community of roughly 27,000 people is 26 miles northeast of Little Rock.

Unlike Monday night’s drawing when a ticket sold in Georgia nabbed $1 million for matching all five white balls (but not the Powerball), lottery players in the state weren’t so lucky on Wednesday night. In fact, in the drawing two nights earlier, several Georgians won $50,000, with a couple of tickets Monday night even getting $100,000 for choosing the Power Play option.

Wednesday’s three $50,000 winning tickets were purchased on the Georgia Lottery app by a Newnan resident, at a BP Food Store on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Duluth and at a Kroger in Grovetown, just west of Augusta.

Final ticket sales pushed the Wednesday night jackpot higher than previously expected, making it the second-largest in U.S. history and the largest Powerball prize of 2025, according to www.powerball.com. The jackpot had a lump sum cash payment option of $834.9 million.

“Congratulations to the newest Powerball jackpot winner! This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize,” Matt Strawn, Powerball product group chair and Iowa Lottery CEO, was quoted as saying by the website. “We also want to thank all the players who joined in this jackpot streak — every ticket purchased helps support public programs and services across the country.”

The prize followed 46 consecutive drawings in which no one matched all six numbers.

The last drawing with a jackpot winner was Sept. 6, when players in Missouri and Texas won $1.787 billion.

Organizers said it is the second time the Powerball jackpot has been won by a ticket sold in Arkansas. It first happened in 2010.

The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011, Powerball said. The company added that the sweepstakes also has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.

Powerball’s odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes growing as they roll over when no one wins. Lottery officials note that the odds are far better for the game’s many smaller prizes.

“With the prize so high, I just bought one kind of impulsively. Why not?” Indianapolis glass artist Chris Winters said Wednesday.

Tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

___

AJC staff contributed to this report; Associated Press videojournalist Obed Lamy in Indianapolis contributed.

___