Christmas came early for someone who purchased a Powerball ticket at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas, worth more than $1.8 billion.

The lone winner in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing matched all five winning numbers and the Powerball to capture the second-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, ending the game’s three-month stretch without a top prize winner.

Here are some things to know about the Powerball jackpot and what happens next.

Where was the ticket sold?

The winning ticket was sold at a Murphy USA gas station in Cabot, a suburb northeast of Little Rock with a population of about 27,000 people. A telephone message left at the store on Friday was not returned, but a spokesperson for the company, Alejandra Barron, said in an email their stores were particularly busy on Christmas Eve with shoppers purchasing Powerball tickets.

It is the second time a major jackpot was won at a Murphy USA store. Last year, an $800 million winning Mega Millions multi-state lottery ticket was sold at a Murphy Express in Sugar Land, Texas, Barron said.

The entire community of Cabot is buzzing about who the potential winner might be, said the city’s Mayor Ken Kincade.

“It’s all over Facebook, Twitter,” Kincade said. “Everyone’s talking about it and wants to know who it is.”

Because the gas station is located near a major interstate, Kincade said it’s also possible the lottery winner was from out of town.

“I hope it’s a citizen from Cabot, of course,” Kincade said. “That would be wonderful.”

What happens next?

In Arkansas, lottery winners have 180 days, or about 6 months, to claim their prize, said Karen Reynolds, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

Under Arkansas law, lottery winners of prizes of more than $500,000 can request that their identity remains confidential for up to three years, after which the information is no longer exempt from disclosure. However, if the winner is an elected official or a close relative, those records remain confidential for only 6 months.

Lottery proceeds are subject state individual income tax in Arkansas, where the top rate is 3.9%. If the winner selects the lump sum cash payment option of $834.9 million, they would owe the state of Arkansas more than $32 million.

Arkansas law also authorizes overdue taxes, delinquent child support and any other judgments or liens to be withheld from lottery winnings if that person has such outstanding debts.

What else to know about the Powerball?

The winning numbers were 04, 25, 31, 52 and 59, with the Powerball number being 19.

The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve was in 2011, Powerball said. The company added that the sweepstakes has been won on Christmas Day four times, most recently in 2013.

Powerball’s odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes growing as they roll over when no one wins.

Lottery officials made the odds tougher in 2015 to create those humongous jackpots, although officials note the odds are far better for the game’s many smaller prizes.

Tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Richard Davenport

rdavenport@arkansasonline.com

Richard Davenport has covered recruiting for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and wholehogsports.com since 2007. He appears weekly on “The Morning Rush” with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on 95.3 FM in Fort Smith, 96.3 FM in Hot Springs, 104.3 FM in Harrison/Mountain Home and 99.5 FM in Fayetteville, and on “Out of Bounds” with Wess Moore and Joe Franklin on 103.7 FM in Little Rock.

A single winning ticket was sold for Powerball’s Christmas Eve jackpot of $1.817 billion — the second-largest U.S. lottery prize ever. The winner, who has not yet been publicly identified, bought the lucky ticket at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas.

The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were 4, 25, 31, 52, 59,  with a Powerball of 19. 

The grand prize had a lump sum cash value of $834.9 million. A rush of ticket sales pushed the final jackpot total even higher than previously expected.

The winning ticket was sold at a Murphy USA in the town of Cabot, lottery officials in Arkansas said Thursday. No one answered the phone Thursday at the location, which was closed for Christmas, The Associated Press reported. 

The Powerball jackpot had been won once before on Christmas Eve, in 2011, and four times on Christmas Day, the game says. Powerball started in 1992.

The last time a Powerball jackpot was hit was on Sept. 6 in Missouri and Texas, when two tickets split a $1.787 billion top prize. The nearly four-month stretch between jackpots — 47 drawings — was a record for the most in a Powerball jackpot cycle, the game says.

This is only the second time in the game’s history with back-to-back winning jackpots topping $1 billion, Powerball said.

The $1.817 billion prize is second only to the $2.04 billion jackpot won in 2022 by a single ticket sold in Altadena, California, which was the largest in both Powerball and lottery history.

To win the jackpot, a ticket must match all five white balls and the red Powerball pulled during a drawing. Single winners of the top prize can choose between a lump sum payment or a payout via an annuity of one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each time. Both the lump sum and annuity total are before taxes. 

Other ticket-holders will also take home a tidy sum. Powerball says eight tickets in Tuesday night’s drawing matched all five white balls for a “Match 5” prize of $1 million (the prize total varies in California); 114 tickets won $50,000 prizes and 31 tickets won $100,000.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to game officials. Lottery jackpots have exploded in size over the last decade, while the odds of winning have gotten slimmer. 

Tickets cost $2 each and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11 p.m. ET.