What Time Is the Powerball Drawing Tonight? 10:59 P.M. Eastern — for a $793 Million Jackpot, the 10th Largest in the Game's History
No ticket matched all six numbers on Halloween night, so Monday's drawing carries an estimated $793 million — a cash option of $339.9 million — after 34 straight rolls since August 12. New Jersey players are in the game until their retailer's sales cutoff tonight.
The question New Jersey lottery players are asking this afternoon has a precise answer: tonight's Powerball drawing is at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, and the prize on the table is an estimated $793 million, with a cash option of $339.9 million. The jackpot reached that figure after no ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday's Halloween drawing — the winning numbers were 2, 4, 18, 50 and 56, with a Powerball of 20 and a Power Play multiplier of 3x — according to the USA TODAY Network's drawing-day explainer, read in full by this desk.
The size of the prize is itself part of the story. At an estimated $793 million, Monday's jackpot is the 10th largest in Powerball history, and it has been building for nearly three months: no ticket has matched all six numbers since August 12, when a ticket sold in Quincy, Illinois won $1.04 billion, and the jackpot has rolled 34 straight times since resetting to $20 million — making tonight the 35th drawing of the run. The advertised $793 million is the total of the annuity paid over 30 yearly payments; the $339.9 million cash option is about 43 percent of it, before taxes. A ticket costs $2, and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
For New Jersey players, the practical points are the clock and the cutoff. Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, and ticket-sale deadlines vary by jurisdiction and can close before the drawing — so a ticket bought tonight has to be bought before the New Jersey sales cutoff, not before the drawing itself. If no ticket matches all six numbers tonight, the jackpot rolls again for Wednesday's drawing. This desk will carry tonight's winning numbers in the overnight cycle, from the official draw results — and until 10:59 p.m., the only honest headline is the one on the drum: $793 million, still unwon.
