AUSTIN – Texas Lottery® players are once again swept up in jackpot excitement, as the Grand Prize for the Wednesday, Sept. 27 Powerball® drawing has been raised to an estimated annuitized $850 million – the fourth largest Grand Prize in game history and the ninth largest in U.S. lottery history. Tonight’s drawing offers a cash value worth an estimated $397.4 million. If there is no jackpot winner for tonight’s Powerball drawing, the Grand Prize for the Saturday, Sept. 30 drawing will be an estimated annuitized $925 million.
“As this Powerball Grand Prize inches closer to the billion-dollar mark, we’re seeing a boost in sales for the game, indicating that Texas Lottery players have their sights set on winning this massive jackpot prize,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “Additionally, that spike in sales is pivotal in generating much-needed revenue for public education in Texas. While large jackpots generate a lot of excitement among our players, we want to remind our players to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket to win.”
Wednesday’s drawing will be the 30th in the current Powerball jackpot run since starting as an estimated annuitized $20 million for the July 22 drawing. This is the largest Powerball jackpot up for grabs since the estimated $1.08 billion jackpot from the July 19 drawing. The winning ticket was sold in California.
Since joining the Powerball game in 2010, Texas has had two Powerball Grand Prize winners, including its most recent in February 2015 when TL Management Trust, Andrew Weber, Trustee of Austin, claimed a share of the $564.1 million Grand Prize with two other winners.
So far in 2023, 20 second-tier Powerball prizes of $1 million or larger have been sold to Texas Lottery® players, including three during the current jackpot run. Most recently, a second-tier prize winning ticket worth $2 million was claimed by a Lytle resident for the Sept. 20 drawing. Before that, a Wharton resident also claimed a $2 million prize for the Aug. 30 drawing and a San Antonio resident claimed a second-tier prize worth $2 million prize from the Aug. 12 drawing.
Powerball Grand Prizes currently start at $20 million and roll until the jackpot is won. Players win the Grand Prize by matching five numbers from a field of 69 numbers and one Powerball number from a field of 26 numbers. By choosing Power Play® for $1 more per Play, players can multiply their non-Grand Prize winnings by two, three, four, five or 10 times*. A Power Play Match Five (5+0) prize is set at $2,000,000 regardless of the Power Play number selected. All other non-Grand Prizes will be multiplied by the Power Play number selected. *The 10X Power Play multiplier is available for drawings in which the initially advertised annuitized Grand Prize amount is $150 million or less.
Drawings are broadcast each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:12 p.m. CT. Texas Lottery players can purchase Powerball tickets at more than 20,000 Texas Lottery retailers across the state. Ticket sales for the next Powerball drawing will close at 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The retailer that sells a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket is eligible to receive up to a $1 million retailer bonus.
