Powerball Jackpot Hits $1B: When To Buy Tickets In New Hampshire For Next Drawing

NEW HAMPSHIRE — The jackpot in Saturday’s Powerball drawing has reached the $1 billion threshold, fueling ticket sales and dreams of a big holiday payoff in New Hampshire and other states where the game is played

The jackpot, which currently has a cash value of $461.3 million, could soar even higher before Saturday night’s drawing.

Although there were no jackpot winners in Wednesday’s drawing, tickets worth $1 million were sold in Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey. The numbers drawn on Wednesday were white balls 10, 16, 29, 33, and 69, and red Powerball 22. The Power Play multiplier was 3X.

What would you do with the Powerball? Would you give to a Granite State charity, establish your own, move off the grid, or do something else? Join the conversation below and share your dreams in the comments.

But first, you need a ticket for any of that to have a chance of coming true.

Powerball tickets, which cost $2, are available in New Hampshire at gas stations, convenience stores, and grocery stores. The deadline to buy tickets for Saturday’s drawing is 10:59 p.m.

Players in 12 states and the District of Columbia can purchase tickets from their official state lottery websites. They are Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky (through the app), Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The chances of winning the jackpot are terrible, about 1 in 292.2 million. But the odds do eventually work out for some lucky players.

The last time a New Hampshire player won the Powerball jackpot was in January 2018, when a $559.7 million ticket was claimed by the Good Karma Family 2018. The family took the one-time cash option of $352 million.

Four other jackpots have been won in New Hampshire.

In late July 2016, Robin Egg 2016 Nominee Trust won $487 million and took the one-time cash option of $341.7 million. Dale Chellis and Toni Sergott, in late April 2007, won a $67 million jackpot and took the $39.9 million one-time payment. The Bow Trust won an $85.5 million jackpot in February 2004 and received a $46.5 million one-time cash payment. The Aeetos Trust, Rosemary Centola & Lawrence Centola, won a $135 million drawing, taking a $70.8 million one-time cash payout, in late August 2003.

All the one-time cash payouts were before taxes.

“Who wants to be a billionaire?!,” Charlie McIntyre, the executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery said Friday. “Saturday night’s Powerball jackpot has reached a significant number, offering players a chance to win $1 billion. This is the jackpot that Granite Staters play Powerball for, there’s nothing like it when a jackpot reaches that billion-dollar mark. I can think of about a million or even maybe a billion things that I could do with that jackpot, but the real question is, what will you do with it? I can only hope we have a New Hampshire winner to hand the check to and I can hear all about your plans for this life-changing prize.”

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.

Saturday’s drawing will be the 42nd in the current jackpot run, tying the game record for most consecutive drawings in a single jackpot cycle. The Powerball jackpot was last won on Sept. 6 by two ticket-holders in Missouri and Texas who split a $1.787 billion prize.

Both the annuitized jackpot and lump sum payment are subject to taxes. If the winner selects the annuity option, they will receive one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5 percent each year.

Powerball is played in all but five states — Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah — and also in 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.

Powerball said that since its first drawing in 1992, the game has helped generate more than $37 billion for good causes supported by U.S. lotteries.

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee, Florida. Powerball drawings are also live-streamed on Powerball.com.

The top 10 jackpots in the history of the game are:

1. $2.04 Billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – California
2. $1.787 Billion – Sept. 6, 2025 – Missouri and Texas
3. $1.765 Billion – Oct. 11, 2023 - California
4. $1.586 Billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – California, Florida and Tennessee
5. $1.326 Billion – April 6, 2024 – Oregon
6. $1.08 Billion – July 19, 2023 – California
7. $1 Billion est. – Dec 13, 2025
8. $842.4 Million – January 1, 2024 – Michigan
9. $768.4 Million – March 27, 2019 – Wisconsin
10. $758.7 Million – Aug. 23, 2017 – Massachusetts

Now, join the conversation below and share the things you dream of doing if you win the lottery jackpot.

Editor's note: This post was scripted by another Patch staffer, with research done by New Hampshire's editor, for publication on New Hampshire sites.