Powerball play slips are seen Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
LOS ANGELES – There were no tickets sold with all six numbers in the latest drawing of the multi-state Powerball lottery, pushing the estimated jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing to $1.25 billion, the 12th-largest lottery jackpot in US history.
A ticket with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, was sold at a market in Salinas and is worth $708,443, the California Lottery announced.
While tickets with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or $2 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners.
The ticket with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, sold in Arizona is worth $1 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
The numbers drawn Monday (Dec. 15) were 23, 35, 59, 63, 68 and the Powerball number was 2. The estimated jackpot is $1.1 billion, also the 12th-largest lottery jackpot in American history.
The jackpots for both Monday and Wednesday’s drawings are the sixth-largest in the history of the Powerball game, which began in 1992. There have been six larger jackpots for the Mega Millions game, which began in 1996 as The Big Game and was given the new name Mega Millions in 2002.
The drawing was the 42nd since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold. A ticket with all six numbers hasn’t been sold since Sept. 6, when one ticket each with all six numbers was sold in Missouri and Texas when the jackpot had reached $1.787 billion, the second-largest lottery jackpot in US history.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. (CNS)
