Topline
The Powerball jackpot rose ot $950 million—the biggest lottery prize of 2025 so far—after no tickets matched all six numbers drawn on Wednesday night, although the eventual winner will likely take home a much smaller payout after paying their taxes.
A customer holds a number slip for Powerball lottery tickets.
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Key Facts
The six numbers drawn on Wednesday night were 9, 12, 22, 41, 61, and red Powerball 25.
If a winner emerges in the next draw, they can pick between taking the $950 million prize spread over 30 annualized payments or a one-time lump sum cash payout of $428.9 million—usually the preferred option.
If the cash payout is chosen, the winnings will drop to around $326 million after a mandatory federal withholding of 24% is applied.
Depending on their taxable income, the winner could face a federal marginal rate as high as 37%, which would further reduce their winnings to $270.2 million.
If the winner picks the installment route, their annual payments of around $31.7 million would drop to $19.9 million if the 37% federal marginal rate is applied.
The winner may also face additional taxes based on their state of residence, as some, such as New York, tax lottery winnings at 10.9%, while others, including Texas, Florida, and California, don’t.
What To Watch For
The next draw for the Powerball jackpot will take place on Saturday night, and if a winner fails to emerge once again, this would become the first billion-dollar jackpot of 2025. The next drawing for the Mega Millions lottery is scheduled for Friday, and the current jackpot amount stands at $277 million.
Big Number
1 in 292.2 million. Those are the abysmal odds a Powerball ticket buyer will have to overcome to win the big jackpot. This is slightly worse than the Mega Millions jackpot, which has odds of 1 in 290.4 million. The Mega Millions used to have even worse odds than the Powerball lottery, but the competition implemented significant changes earlier this year that slightly improved the odds of winning both the jackpot and smaller prizes.
Key Background
The eventual winner of the Powerball jackpot will claim the biggest lottery prize of the year so far, beating out the $526.5 million prize won by a Powerball ticket buyer from California in March. They will also take home the largest Powerball jackpot since April last year, when a ticket buyer from Oregon won a $1.326 billion prize. The biggest Mega Millions jackpot of 2025 so far was a $349 million prize won by an Illinois resident in March.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/08/28/powerball-jackpot-nears-1-billion-heres-how-much-the-winner-could-take-home-after-taxes/
