Powerball winning numbers for Wednesday, January 5, 2022; $630M jackpot
The Powerball numbers for Wednesday, January 5 are in. Did you win that $630 million jackpot? It’s the seventh-largest prize in the game’s history.
A new batch of Powerball winning numbers was announced at 10:59 p.m. ET. To win the grand prize, a player must match the numbers on all five white balls (1 - 69) plus the red Powerball (1 - 26).
The winning numbers for Wednesday, Jan. 5 are:
6 14 25 33 46
Powerball: 17
There's no word yet if anyone correctly selected all six numbers-- so for now, you can still dream about how you'd spend all that cash.
Statistically, a jackpot winner would have to overcome 292,201,338-to-one odds. But smaller prizes can be won by matching fewer numbers. Two tickets matched the numbers on five white balls in Monday’s drawing, winning $1 million.
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Thirty-five tickets won at least $50,000 by matching numbers on four of the white balls and the Powerball in Monday's drawing. According to Powerball, you have a one in 24.9 chance of winning a prize of any value.
If you are fortunate enough to win the top prize, sign the back of your ticket and take it to your state’s lottery office. There, you’ll have a decision to make: cash or annuity.
The cash option is a one-time lump-sum payment equal to the value of the prize pool. In the case of Wednesday night’s drawing, that’s estimated to equal $448.4.
Players opting for the annuity will receive the entire jackpot in annual payments over 30 years. To account for inflation, each payment would be 5% larger than the previous.
Powerball data shows the cash option is far more popular than the annuity. No winner has selected the annuity since 2014.
A customer buys Powerball tickets at Kavanagh Liquors on January 13, 2016, in San Lorenzo, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
No matter which option the winner goes with, federal and local taxes will apply to the prize.
No Powerball player has had to make that decision since the last jackpot was won on Oct. 4, 2021, in California. That prize was worth $699.8 million.
Since then, Powerball has held 39 consecutive drawings without a winner, allowing the prize to creep into record territory. And the longer the game goes without a winner, the higher it will climb.
The highest jackpot in Powerball history was worth $1.586 billion and was won on Jan. 13, 2016. Three winners from California, Florida and Tennessee split the prize.
Once a winning ticket is sold, whether it’s ever redeemed for the prize or not, the jackpot will reset at $40 million ahead of the next drawing.
Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday night.
This story was reported from Atlanta.