Powerball Winning Numbers for October 31: 2, 4, 18, 50, 56 — and Nobody Won, So Monday's Jackpot Is $793 Million

The numbers New Yorkers are searching for this morning are these: 2, 4, 18, 50, 56, and the red Powerball, 20. Those were the winning numbers in Saturday night's Powerball drawing, with a Power Play multiplier of 3x — and no ticket anywhere matched all six of them. The jackpot that went unclaimed on Halloween night rolls forward to an estimated $793 million, with a cash value of $339.9 million, for the next drawing on Monday, November 2, at 10:59 p.m. Eastern.

Saturday's prize had been advertised at an estimated $760 million for most of the week and reached about $770 million by drawing time as late ticket sales came in. Three tickets did match all five white balls and missed only the Powerball, and one of them — a ticket sold in North Carolina that had the Power Play option — is worth $2 million. The jackpot itself has not been won since August 12, when a ticket sold in Illinois claimed $1.04 billion.

For New York players, the mechanics are the familiar ones. A ticket costs $2, drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, and the odds of matching all five white balls plus the Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338. Monday's drawing lands the night before Election Day, which means the city's bodegas and lottery retailers have two deadlines to sell this week — a ballot by Tuesday and, for anyone feeling it, a ticket by Monday night.

A word the desk repeats every time this jackpot climbs: check the ticket you already hold before buying another. Saturday's drawing paid out at every level below the jackpot, and a Match 5 ticket without the Power Play is still worth $1 million. The official results are posted by Powerball and the New York Lottery; any ticket from Saturday night is worth a second look against 2, 4, 18, 50, 56 and Powerball 20 before it goes in the trash.