Powerball Draws Tonight for $793 Million at 10:59 P.M. — From the Florida Lottery's Studio in Tallahassee
Nobody hit the Halloween drawing, so the jackpot stands at an estimated $793 million with a $339.9 million cash option. The balls drop tonight in Florida's capital, in the 35th drawing since the last winner.
The biggest number in Florida tonight is not on any ballot. Powerball draws at 10:59 p.m. Eastern from the Florida Lottery's draw studio in Tallahassee for an estimated $793 million jackpot — a prize that rolled up from Saturday's Halloween drawing, when no ticket matched all six numbers (2, 4, 18, 50, 56, with Powerball 20 and a 3x Power Play) and three tickets came one ball short: five-white-ball winners in Georgia and the United Kingdom worth $1 million each, and a North Carolina ticket that played the Power Play for $2 million. A single winner tonight chooses between the $793 million annuity and a cash option of $339.9 million, both before taxes.
The roll is the story's spine. The jackpot was last won on August 12, when a ticket sold in Illinois took an estimated $1.04 billion, and tonight is the 35th consecutive drawing without a winner — the slow arithmetic of a game whose jackpot odds sit at 1 in 292,201,338 per $2 play. Saturday's prize had been advertised at $760 million and was pushed to $770 million by late sales before the drawing; tonight's estimate can move the same way before sales close.
The practical notes are the ones worth printing. Ticket-sale cutoff times vary by jurisdiction and close before the 10:59 p.m. drawing, so a last-minute purchase is a plan to make early, not at 10:58. Drawings run every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and the Florida connection is permanent rather than incidental: every Powerball drawing, wherever the winning ticket is eventually sold, is conducted in Tallahassee. If nobody hits tonight, the roll continues to Wednesday — and this desk will file the numbers either way.
