The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $716 million for Wednesday night's drawing, giving players across the United States one more shot at a life-changing prize before Halloween week ends. The Powerball jackpot for October 28, 2026, will be drawn at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee, and a single winning ticket could take the full $716 million as an annuity or an estimated $307.2 million in cash, before taxes.
Nobody matched all six numbers on Monday night, October 26, so the jackpot rolled over again, continuing a run that began after the last jackpot win in August. Two tickets did come close on Monday, matching all five white balls to win $1 million each, one sold in Florida and one in Georgia. Neither ticket matched the red Powerball, so the top prize kept growing, and Wednesday night's drawing is now the one players across the country are watching.
Monday's drawing produced another rollover. The winning numbers were 18, 26, 49, 50 and 54, with the red Powerball 1 and a Power Play multiplier of 3X. No ticket matched all five white balls plus the Powerball, so the advertised jackpot for Monday, reported at $687 million by the USA TODAY Network, went unclaimed, and the prize climbed to $716 million for Wednesday.
The near-misses were still valuable. A ticket sold in Florida and a ticket sold in Georgia each matched all five white balls but missed the Powerball, and each is worth $1 million. There were no Match 5 plus Power Play winners at the $2 million level on Monday, according to state lottery reporting of the results. Smaller prizes were won across the country, as they are in every drawing, but the headline prize survived for another round.
Wednesday's drawing is the next scheduled Powerball draw. Powerball draws take place three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 10:59 p.m. ET, and the drawing is streamed on the lottery's website and carried by local television stations in many markets. Ticket-sale cutoffs vary by state, typically ending one to two hours before the drawing, so players are advised to check their own state lottery's deadline. In New York, in-store and online sales end at 10 p.m. on draw night, in New Jersey at 9:45 p.m., and in Connecticut at 10 p.m.
The current run began after the last jackpot win on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, when a ticket sold in Quincy, Illinois, won an epic $1.04 billion prize. After that win, the jackpot reset to $20 million on August 15, and it has rolled forward ever since. Reporting on the run counts 32 rollovers including Monday's drawing, which is why a prize that started at $20 million now stands at $716 million.
That is how Powerball jackpots grow. The advertised annuity is funded from ticket sales and the prize pool, so every drawing without a jackpot winner feeds the next drawing's prize. The exact increase depends on ticket sales and interest rates, which is also why advertised figures are estimates: the jackpot can move as sales come in, and the cash value can shift with it. The $716 million figure and the $307.2 million cash option are the estimates published ahead of Wednesday's drawing.
Powerball is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A standard ticket costs $2 per play. Players choose five white-ball numbers from 1 through 69 and one red Powerball number from 1 through 26, or let the terminal pick the numbers for them. Adding Power Play for $1 more can multiply non-jackpot prizes by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X, although the 10X multiplier is only available when the advertised jackpot is $150 million or less, so it does not apply to Wednesday's $716 million drawing.
The game has produced some of the largest lottery prizes in American history, and jackpots above $700 million always draw a surge of casual players alongside regulars. That attention itself helps the prize grow, because more tickets sold means more money in the prize pool for the next drawing if nobody wins. It also means longer lines at retailers on draw night and heavier traffic on lottery websites and apps in the hours before the cutoff.
The most important numbers for Wednesday night are simple. The drawing is at 10:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. The advertised jackpot is $716 million paid as an annuity, or $307.2 million as a lump-sum cash payment, both before federal and state taxes. The annuity is paid as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5 percent each year, a total of 30 payments over 29 years.
The cash option, at $307.2 million, is about 43 percent of the advertised annuity. That gap surprises many first-time players, but it reflects the difference between money paid out over three decades and money paid today: the annuity figure is the total of all 30 graduated payments, while the cash figure is roughly what that prize is worth as a single payment now. Financial advisers and lottery guides generally start with the cash value when talking about what a winner would actually receive, because taxes and investment planning both begin from that number.
Taxes take a further share. Federal withholding on lottery prizes above $5,000 starts at 24 percent, and a jackpot winner's final federal tax bill can reach the top marginal rate of 37 percent depending on their total income, with state taxes varying by where the ticket was bought and where the winner lives. A $307.2 million cash prize would therefore still leave a very large sum after withholding, but the take-home figure would be well below the advertised $716 million, and winners are routinely advised to assemble tax and legal advisers before claiming.
The odds, meanwhile, do not change no matter how big the jackpot gets. Matching all five white balls plus the Powerball carries odds of 1 in 292,201,338 for a single $2 play. The overall odds of winning any Powerball prize, from matching just the Powerball for a small prize up to the jackpot, are about 1 in 24.9. Buying more tickets improves the odds only in proportion to the number of tickets bought, and no set of numbers is more likely than any other: Monday's 18, 26, 49, 50 and 54 are exactly as likely, or unlikely, to appear again as any other combination.
With the drawing still hours away, there is no winner to quote yet, and no winning ticket has been identified. The reaction so far is the familiar one that accompanies every jackpot above $700 million: retailers reporting brisk sales, lottery websites reminding players of cutoff times, and coverage framing the prize in the terms players understand best. The USA TODAY Network summed up the appeal in a single line, writing that there are now "more than 700 million reasons" to give Wednesday night's drawing a look.
The Florida winner from Monday's drawing is the closest thing to a human story so far. A ticket bought in Florida matched all five white balls for $1 million, as did one in Georgia, and lottery officials in both states will confirm the details of those prizes as claims come in. Until Wednesday's numbers are drawn, however, the story is one of anticipation rather than celebration, and the only confirmed winners from this week's run are the $1 million second-tier winners and the many smaller-prize winners from Monday night.
Lottery officials also repeat the same responsible-play message at moments like this: a ticket is entertainment, not an investment strategy, and players should spend only what they can afford. That advice matters most when the jackpot is at its largest, because the size of the prize can tempt people to spend far more than they planned on a game whose odds, at 1 in 292 million, remain vanishingly small for any single ticket.
A $716 million jackpot matters for two reasons. The first is the obvious one: it is a genuinely life-changing sum, even after taxes, and it arrives in the week before Halloween and six days before the November 3 midterm elections, when national attention is already high. Jackpots of this size become shared cultural events, talked about at work, in checkout lines and on social media, and they pull in millions of people who rarely play.
The second reason is economic. Lottery revenue supports state budgets, and Powerball's multi-state structure means a big jackpot generates significant sales across 45 states and the other participating jurisdictions. Retailers earn commissions on ticket sales, states collect revenue for the programmes their lotteries fund, and the publicity around a $716 million prize drives sales for other games too. Mega Millions, for example, rolled over on Tuesday night as well, with its own jackpot heading toward its Friday, October 30 drawing after Tuesday's $443 million prize went unclaimed.
There is also a cautionary side. Problem-gambling experts note that jackpot fever can lead some players to chase losses or spend beyond their means, and state lotteries publish helpline information alongside their draw results for that reason. The sensible approach, advisers say, is to treat a $2 ticket as the price of a daydream, check the cutoff time in your state, and keep the ticket somewhere safe until the numbers are drawn.
The next step is the drawing itself at 10:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 28, at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. Winning numbers are posted on the Powerball website and by state lotteries shortly after the draw, and US News Pulse will report the results and whether the jackpot was won or rolled over again.
If a ticket matches all six numbers, the jackpot resets to $20 million for the next drawing, and the winner or winners will have a limited claim period, set by the state where the ticket was sold, to come forward and choose between the annuity and the cash option. If nobody wins, the jackpot will climb again for Saturday night's drawing, and the run that began in August will extend further into the autumn.
Players who already hold tickets for Wednesday should check their numbers against the official results rather than relying on social media posts, and keep tickets safe until prizes are verified. For related coverage, see our report on Tuesday's Mega Millions rollover: Mega Millions winning numbers for October 27, jackpot rolls on. More US news is available on the US News Pulse homepage.
The Powerball drawing for Wednesday, October 28, 2026, is at 10:59 p.m. ET at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. Results are posted on the Powerball website and by state lotteries after the draw.
The estimated jackpot is $716 million as an annuity, or $307.2 million as a lump-sum cash payment, both before taxes. Both figures are estimates and can change with ticket sales.
Monday, October 26, 2026, numbers were 18, 26, 49, 50 and 54, with Powerball 1 and a Power Play multiplier of 3X. No ticket won the jackpot; two tickets in Florida and Georgia matched five white balls for $1 million each.
The odds of matching all five white balls plus the Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338 for a single play. The overall odds of winning any prize are about 1 in 24.9.
A standard ticket costs $2, with Power Play an extra $1. Cutoff times vary by state, typically one to two hours before the 10:59 p.m. ET drawing; New York sales end at 10 p.m., New Jersey at 9:45 p.m., and Connecticut at 10 p.m. on draw night.
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