Powerball Jackpot: $793 Million Is on the Line in Monday Night's Drawing
Nobody matched all six numbers on Halloween, so Monday night's Powerball drawing is worth an estimated $793 million — the 10th largest Powerball prize ever — with a $339.9 million cash option, at 10:59 p.m. Eastern.
The number New Yorkers are searching for this weekend is not a score. It is a jackpot: an estimated $793 million, the prize for Monday night's Powerball drawing at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, after no ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday's Halloween drawing. The winning numbers that night were 2, 4, 18, 50 and 56, with the Powerball 20 — close enough to make three five-number tickets worth $1 million or more, and no closer.
The roll has been building since August 12, when a ticket sold in Illinois claimed an estimated $1.04 billion. Monday's drawing will be the 35th since then, and at $793 million the prize stands as the 10th largest Powerball jackpot ever offered and the 20th largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. A single winner on Monday chooses between the $793 million annuity and a cash option of $339.9 million, both before taxes.
The honest arithmetic belongs in the story too: the odds of winning the jackpot on a $2 ticket are 1 in 292.2 million, which is why the Halloween drawing could pay out a $2 million Match 5 prize in North Carolina and $1 million prizes in Georgia and the United Kingdom and still roll on untouched.
Powerball is sold by the New York Lottery at retailers across the five boroughs, and drawings run Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Monday night's numbers will be posted as soon as they are drawn — and if nobody matches all six again, Wednesday's prize climbs past this one.
