Lucky Powerball player wins $1.8 billion jackpot on Christmas eve with second biggest prize ever

The identity of the winner remains a mystery, although Powerball revealed that the lucky Arkansan chose numbers 4, 25, 31, 52, and 59. They also chose a red Powerball 19 and a Power Play multiplier of 2.

Eight other winners matched all five white balls, with those tickets being sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Two others were purchased in New York, with the winners set to bank $1 million.

Meanwhile, 114 Powerball tickets won cash prizes of $50,000, and 31 tickets banked $100,000 jackpots.

“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, said. “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 odds of winning a prize stand at 1 in 24.9, according to Powerball. However, the odds of winning the jackpot are a staggering 1 in 292.2 million.

The unnamed winner now faces a choice in how they wish to bank the mammoth cash win. They can have the money dished out to them in annuitized amounts over 30 years or take a cut to their winnings by taking a lump sum now.

The lump sum would be valued at $834.9 million. However, both options are before taxes.

Choosing the annuitized version would make the mystery winner richer than some of the U.S.’s biggest celebrities, including Bruce Springsteen, who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes.

They would also be richer than Rihanna, who is worth $1.4 billion, and Taylor Swift, who reportedly has a fortune worth $1.6 billion.

Although their wealth might not stack up to Oprah Winfrey’s $3 billion estate or Michael Jordan’s reported net worth of $3.5 billion, the winner’s jackpot does slightly exceed Kim Kardashian’s $1.7 billion fortune.

The lucky Arkansan would easily be able to purchase a range of luxuries with their new winnings, including a private island.

According to Private Islands Online, buyers can purchase their own property off the coast of Florida for just $2 million.

Larger islands can cost as much as $75 million, although this would still be well within the winner’s budget, even if they took the lump sum amount.

Purchasing a house in some of the U.S’s swankiest neighborhoods would be easy too, with glamorous mansions in Beverly Hills, California, costing between $1.149 million and $175 million according to JamesEdition.

Holiday pads in the Hamptons would be well within reach, too, with Sotheby’s International Real Estate selling 12-bedroom, 15,000-square-foot homes in the prestigious New York neighborhood for $49.9 million.

This is the second biggest Powerball win ever, with the largest standing at $2.04 billion. That winning ticket was sold to Edwin Castro in California in November 2022.

Castro opted to take the lump sum, meaning that he banked a fortune worth $997.6 million, according to the California Lottery.