CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Lottery is one of the millions around the nation that will have their eye on tonight’s Powerball drawing.
The Powerball jackpot sits at $1.25 billion, an estimated cash value of $572.1 million. That marks the sixth largest jackpot in the game’s history, and it is just the second time where the game has seen back-to-back jackpots over a billion dollars.
The drawing will be at 10:59 p.m.
“It’s exciting for the lottery and it’s exciting for our players,” said West Virginia Lottery acting director David Bradley. “As excited as we are for our players and for the state and the revenue it generates, we always encourage our players to play responsible.”
Bradley says even if that billion-dollar ticket get hit elsewhere, there will be other big tickets to look out for tonight.
“We’re excited too about the other levels that win. People are excited when they win $5, $20, and $100, and we’re grateful for our players and our retailers and the people that support the lottery,” he said.
Bradley announced Tuesday morning during a lottery commission meeting that two other large tickets had been hit in the state in recent weeks.
A $500,000 ticket was purchased at Martinsburg Wal-Mart, and a $50,000 ticket was sold at the GoMart in Sophia.
In 2025 alone, four different million-dollar tickets were sold in the state. The most recent came a month ago from rural Hardy County at the Misty Valley Grocery in Mathias. Bradley said today that the ticket has not yet been claimed.
Earlier in the year, million-dollar tickets were sold at the Par Mar #17 in Hurricane and the Mardi Gras Casino in Nitro. Neither ticket was claimed.
“When you buy a ticket, make sure you sign the back of it. We encourage all of our players to be sure to check those tickets because you never know. We tell them to look in their car seats, under the car seats, in their book bags, in their purses, gym bags, and jackets.”
WV Lottery financial successes:
The lottery is coming off a strong month of November, where revenues totaled $109,626,000, which is about $14 million ahead of projections.
Total traditional sales for the fiscal year are up six percent — an increase of $31 million from fiscal year 2025. As of the end of November, the Lottery is nearly 13 percent ahead of revenue projections for the year.
So far this year, the Lottery has transferred nearly $300 million to the state for proceeds helping veterans and seniors, the state’s tourism department, the state School Building Authority, and the Promise Scholarship.
“At the Lottery, we do an awful lot of good and we’re important to the state budget. To do good for those programs out there, that’s what makes us happy. I want to make sure people know that when they play, it goes for a good cause.”