Powerball numbers drawn on Saturday, 31 October, produced no jackpot winner, sending the top prize higher for the next drawing on Monday, 2 November. The winning numbers were 2, 4, 18, 50, and 56, with the Powerball number 20 and a Power Play multiplier of 3. State lottery pages in Illinois, New York, South Carolina, Georgia, and Ohio each recorded no jackpot winners for the draw, and the estimated jackpot for Monday was put at 793 million dollars, with a cash value of about 340 million dollars.
The jackpot on offer on Saturday had been advertised at about 760 million dollars ahead of the draw, with a cash value of 325.7 million dollars reported by USA Today. Some state lottery pages listed the advertised jackpot at 770.2 million dollars, a difference that reflects how the advertised figure moves as ticket sales are counted. Either way, no ticket matched all five white balls plus the Powerball, so the prize rolled forward. The last Powerball jackpot winner came on 12 August, when a ticket in Illinois claimed an estimated 1.04 billion dollars.
Drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. The next drawing is on Monday, 2 November, at the same time. Tickets cost 2 dollars, with the Power Play option adding 1 dollar for a chance to multiply non-jackpot prizes. On Saturday the Power Play multiplier was 3, so a player who had added that option and won a smaller prize would have seen that prize tripled, up to set limits for the larger prize tiers.
Powerball odds and how the game works
The odds of matching all five numbers plus the Powerball are 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The overall chance of winning any prize is 1 in 24.9. The game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 69 and one Powerball number from 1 to 26, or they can let the terminal pick numbers at random.
The jackpot grows with each drawing that produces no top winner, because a share of ticket sales is added to the prize pool. That rollover run had stretched since August, which is why the Saturday jackpot had climbed into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Long runs without a winner are normal given the odds, and they tend to draw more players as the advertised prize rises. More players means more ticket sales, which in turn pushes the next jackpot higher again.
Smaller prizes were still won on Saturday. State pages reported tens of thousands of winners in individual states, including 36,314 winners in Illinois, 63,396 in New York, 41,853 in Georgia, 35,932 in Ohio, and 16,890 in South Carolina. Those figures cover all prize tiers below the jackpot, from matching just the final ball alone up to matching five white balls without it. Georgia paid out more than 1.29 million dollars across its winners.
Powerball jackpot history and Monday drawing
The Saturday draw fell on Halloween, a night when lottery draws often draw extra attention, and the numbers were published within hours of the drawing. Players were urged to check tickets through official state lottery channels rather than relying on social media posts, because the official result is the one that counts for a claim. A ticket must match the numbers for the correct drawing date, and the Power Play multiplier applies only to tickets bought with that option.
Jackpot winners face a choice between an annuity paid over 30 years and a lump sum cash payment, which is lower than the advertised jackpot. For the Monday jackpot of 793 million dollars, the cash option was estimated at about 340 million dollars before taxes. Federal withholding of 24 percent applies to large prizes, and the final tax bill can differ once a winner files a return.
Powerball players check tickets before Monday
Players holding Saturday tickets still have time to check them before Monday, and unclaimed smaller prizes remain payable under state rules. Lottery officials advise large winners to sign the ticket, keep it safe, and seek financial and legal advice before coming forward. The claim period and the process for claiming vary by state, and jackpot winners in some states can remain anonymous while others must be named in public.
For Monday, the question is whether the run without a jackpot winner will continue. If no ticket matches all six numbers again, the jackpot will roll higher for Wednesday. Either way, the Saturday numbers of 2, 4, 18, 50, 56, and Powerball 20 are now part of the record of a jackpot run that began in August and carried through Halloween into November.