Topline
A Powerball ticket buyer from Illinois won the $1.04 billion jackpot on Wednesday night—the biggest lottery prize of 2026 so far—although they are set to take home a much smaller amount after taxes and deductions.
Key Facts
After the winner comes forward, they will have to choose between receiving the $1.04 billion payout spread across 30 annual installments or a one-time cash prize of $450.5 million—the preferred pick for most winners.
If they choose the lump-sum payment, the winnings will first drop to around $342.4 million after a mandatory 24% federal withholding.
The winner is then likely to face a federal marginal rate as high as 37%, depending on their overall taxable income, further cutting their winnings to $283.8 million.
If they pick the installment route, the winner’s annual payments of around $34.7 million would drop to $21.8 million after the 37% federal marginal tax rate is applied.
Illinois is among the states that tax lottery winnings and the winner will have to pay a flat 4.95% rate on the total winnings—which for the lumpsum pay out would be $22.3 million—which will be automatically withheld once they collect their prize.
Key Background
This is the biggest lottery prize of the year so far, pipping an $800 million Mega Millions jackpot that was won by a Florida ticket buyer last Tuesday. Among Powerball jackpots 2026’s biggest one prior to this was a $250.8 million prize won by a lottery player from Arkansas.
Big Number
1-in-292.2 million. Those are the abysmal odds the Illinois ticket buyer had to overcome to win the Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night. This is even worse than the Mega Millions lottery’s already poor odds of 1-in-290.4 million.
Tangent
Last month, the Powerball Jackpot was expanded to include players from the U.K. for the first time, which officials have said will lead to “faster-growing jackpots,” with the additional ticket sales adding to the prize pool. In the event a U.K. player had emerged as the winner of the jackpot, they would have only had the option of receiving the prize spread across 30 annual installments. The jackpot prize advertised by the U.K. National Lottery before Wednesday night’s draw was around £503 million ($679.5 million). While it appears lower than the $1 billion advertised U.S. prize, officials in the U.K. note this reflected the estimated amount a winner would receive over a 30-year period, “after exchange rates and UK tax requirements have been taken into account.”
further reading
Mega Millions Ticket Buyer From Florida Wins $800 Million—Here’s What They Could Take Home (Forbes)