Wednesday Powerball Jackpot Climbs To $1.2B: What To Know In IL

ILLINOIS — How lucky do you feel, Illinois? The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night’s drawing climbed to $1.2 billion after no one matched all six numbers drawn Monday. The cash value of the grand prize is $551.7 million.

Numbers were 12, 26, 27, 43, 47 and red Powerball 5. The Power Play multiplier was 2X.

Winning the jackpot — now the third-largest in Powerball history, and the seventh-largest among U.S. lottery jackpots — is sheer luck. The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292.2 million. The odds of winning any prize are better, at 1 in 24.9.

Tickets in Illinois must have been purchased by 8:59 p.m. p.m. to be eligible for Wednesday’s drawing, which will be held at 9:59 p.m. Central Time.

However, residents looking to add to their chances can take advantage of a free Powerball ticket giveaway that is being hosted by the Illinois Lottery.

The Illinois Lottery is hosting the Powerball Ticket Grab Challenge, which allows residents to step inside a booth at a River Grove convenience store and grab as many tickets as they can in five seconds, lottery officials announced on Tuesday.

The giveaway will run between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday when 1,200 tickets will be given away. The ticket grab machine will be located at Rich’s Fresh Market, which is located at 3141 N. Thatcher Ave. in River Grove.

Participants must be 18 years or older to participate and the giveaway will only last as long as the 1,200 tickets are available.

A jackpot winner in Wednesday’s drawing may claim the full prize through annualized payments over 30 years or the cash option, or they may take the $551.7 million cash option. In either case, the winnings are taxable.

More than 2.7 million winning tickets were sold across the country for Monday’s drawing, including two $1 million tickets sold in Delaware and Michigan. Two other tickets, sold in New York and South Carolina, matched all five white balls and increased the $1 million prize to $2 million by including the Power Play feature for an additional $1 per play.

Other big wins from Monday night include 70 tickets that won $50,000 prizes and 12 tickets that won $100,000 prizes.

This marks the first time in Powerball game history that back-to-back jackpot cycles have generated billion-dollar grand prizes. The Powerball jackpot was previously won on July 19 in California, when a single ticket won a jackpot worth $1.08 billion. Since then, there have been 32 consecutive drawings without a grand prize winner.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play. Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Powerball numbers are drawn three times a week — at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.