Powerball Jackpot Soars To $1.25B: What To Know In Illinois

ILLINOIS — On Wednesday, Illinois Lottery Powerball players have a chance to win a jackpot of $1.25 billion. The drawing's jackpot is the second biggest of 2025 for the Powerball game.

This Powerball jackpot began ramping up in early September, after players in Missouri and Texas cashed in on the previous $1.787 billion jackpot. According to Illinois Lottery, this is the second time back-to-back Powerball jackpots have hit $1 billion.

During Monday's drawing, there were no Powerball jackpot or $2 million Match Five Power Play winners.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play. Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of all proceeds from the sale of a Powerball ticket remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold. Since its first drawing in 1992, the Powerball game has helped generate more than $36 billion for good causes supported by U.S. lotteries.

Players can buy their Powerball tickets in participating stores, via the Illinois Lottery app or on the Illinois Lottery website. Merchants who sell a winning ticket will receive 1 percent of the ticket's prize amount.

The deadline to buy a ticket in Illinois is 9 p.m. and the drawing will be held at 9:59 p.m.

The chances of winning the jackpot are not good — about 1 in 292.2 million. Illinois has had two jackpot winners since 2003.

The last — and largest — Illinois Powerball jackpot came in March 2013, when Ted Baumgartner won $50 million after buying a ticket at a Shell Express in Freeport. Before that, Illinois' other win came in December 2010, when a group known as the Shim Partnership bought a $37.5 million winning Powerball ticket at a Thornton gas station in Forest Park.

Since 2003, the jackpot has been unclaimed three times:

• A ticket worth $77.1 million for the June 29, 2011, drawing was sold in Georgia;
• A ticket worth $50 million for the May 25, 2013, drawing was sold in Florida; and
• A ticket worth $139.3 million for the July 3, 2024, drawing was sold in Ohio.