The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No-one answered the phone on Thursday, local time, at the location, which was closed for Christmas.<\/p>\n
The community of roughly 27,000 people is 42 kilometres north-east of Little Rock.<\/p>\n
Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot higher than previously expected, making it the second-largest in US history and the largest Powerball prize of 2025, according to www.powerball.com.<\/p>\n
The jackpot had a lump sum cash payment option of $US834.9 million.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“We also want to thank all the players who joined in this jackpot streak \u2014 every ticket purchased helps support public programs and services across the country.”<\/p>\n
Lottery officials said they would not know who won until at least Monday , local time, because winners must contact a claims centre, which is closed for the holidays until then, according to Karen Reynolds, a spokesperson for the Arkansas lottery.<\/p>\n
The prize followed 46 consecutive drawings in which no-one matched all six numbers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The winning ticket was purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas. (AP: Jenny Kane)<\/p>\n
The last drawing with a jackpot winner was September 6, local time, when players in Missouri and Texas won $1.787 billion.<\/p>\n
Organisers said it was the second time the Powerball jackpot had been won by a ticket sold in Arkansas. It first happened in 2010.<\/p>\n
The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011, Powerball said. The company added that the sweepstakes also had been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.<\/p>\n
Powerball’s odds of one 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.<\/p>\n
Tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Powerball ticket purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas, won a $US1.817 billion ($2.7 billion)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5809,64,63,99,194965,201278,106700,201277,64007,64882,2957],"class_list":["post-372171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-arkansas","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-christmas-eve","tag-little-rock","tag-lottery","tag-nra","tag-powerball","tag-powerball-jackpot","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}