Powerball FAQS
Powerball drawings take place three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida, at approximately 10:59 PM ET (9:59 PM CT).
You can play Powerball either by visiting a lottery retailer or online. In order to enter, you must select five main numbers from 1 to 69 and a Powerball between 1 and 26. Read more about the Powerball rules on our How to Play page.
Ticket sales in Texas close at 9:00 PM, before reopening again at 10:15 PM CT after the draw has taken place. If you find yourself in another state, ticket sales usually close approximately an hour before the draw, although the exact time might vary between states.
The price of a Powerball ticket is $2. If you want to add the Power Play option, you need to pay an extra $1.
Yes, you can enter up to 15 consecutive drawings if you mark the 'Multi-Draw' box.
Power Play is an extra feature which can be added to your Powerball ticket for $1. By choosing this option, you could increase your non-jackpot winnings by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 times. Read more about the Power Play option on the How to Play page here.
The Powerball jackpot starts at $20 million and rolls over until it is won.
No, the Powerball jackpot will keep on rolling until a participant manages to match all six winning numbers.
The largest Powerball jackpot was worth $2.04 billion and it was won on November 7, 2022. The grand prize was won by a Californian player who claimed the cash value option worth $997 million. In Texas, the largest Powerball jackpot was won on February 11, 2015. The $564.1 million jackpot was shared between a lucky winner from Texas and two others from South Carolina and Puerto Rico. The Texan’s share of the prize worth over $127 million was claimed by TL Management Trust, Andrew Weber, Trustee of Austin.
The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are approximately 1 in 24.9. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338. You can explore the odds of winning for each prize category on our Odds and Prizes page.
Winning tickets are valid for 180 days from the draw date. Depending on the amount of your prize, you may claim by mail or by organizing an appointment in Austin. Read more about how to claim prizes here.