The Powerball jackpot is at $905m. Winners can only stay anonymous in some states.
The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $905 million after no ticket matched all six numbers on Saturday night.
The numbers will be drawn Monday at 10:59 p.m. ET to determine whether anyone has won the biggest jackpot of the year, after more than three months without a winner.
After consecutive drawings without a winner, the grand prize now ranks as potentially the eighth-largest Powerball jackpot ever offered.
While the eye-popping sum has attracted plenty of attention, whoever takes home the jackpot may not have to share the spotlight.
Whether a Powerball winner can keep their identity secret depends largely on where the winning ticket was bought.
Can Powerball winners remain anonymous?
In some states, yes. The rules vary widely across the country, with some states offering winners broad anonymity and others providing privacy only in certain circumstances.
Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri and South Carolina are among the states where winners can generally keep their identities private. Others, including Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and West Virginia, provide protections for qualifying prizes.
Some states impose different restrictions. North Carolina, for example, provides certain large-prize winners with only a limited period of anonymity, while trusts or other legal entities can offer another route to privacy in some jurisdictions.
Virginia changed its protections on July 1, 2026, to ensure anonymity for any lottery winner.
In many other states, however, at least some information about lottery winners is considered public record and can be disclosed.
Why do some states identify lottery winners?
States that name lottery winners typically point to transparency and public trust. Making winners public provides proof that jackpots are going to real people and helps assure players that state-run games are above board.
But lawmakers in a number of states have changed the rules in recent decades amid concerns that winners whose identities are made public can become targets for criminals, scammers and people seeking money.
Lottery lawyer Kurt Panouses, who has represented winners for decades, including some worth hundreds of millions, advises clients to limit their exposure where possible. That can include using intermediaries and even claiming prizes on busy news days, such as Election Day, to attract less attention.
Panouses regularly fields inquiries from investors, scammers and people seeking financial help who are trying to reach his clients.
“It’s hard for people who don’t have the experience or life perspective to say no,” Panouses told the Associated Press.
How much would a $905 million Powerball jackpot winners actually take home?
There are two ways for winners to claim their money — either in a one-off, lump sum payment , or an annuity paid out over 29 years.
Take the $905 million jackpot as an example.
According to Forbes, a lump sum payment will be worth an estimated $392 million in cash. Winners will then face a 24% federal withholding tax plus additional federal taxes of being in the top tax bracket —bringing the total to 37%.
State and local taxes could reduce the payout further depending on where the ticket was purchased and other circumstances. According to the USA Mega website, New York has a top state income-tax rate of 10.9%, while states including Texas, Florida and California do not tax lottery winnings.
That means a winner in New York state might expect to take home a lump sum payment of around $204 million (New York City has even more taxes), while someone in California could expect to win closer to $247 million.
Those opting for the annuity will get 30 annual payments that increase by 5% each time. That means the first payment will be smallest, and the final payment the largest one, averaging out at around $19 million per year.
What are the odds of winning Powerball?
The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
By comparison, you’re 240 times more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year than win Powerball with a single ticket.
In total, the overall odds of winning a prize of any type are 1 in 24.87.
When was the last big Powerball win?
Nobody has won the grand prize in the last three months, with just seven payouts larger than this in the past 10 years.
The most recent top 10 payout saw one lucky player, who bought the winning ticket at a gas station in Cabot, Ark., get a memorable Christmas present when they won the $1.817 billion jackpot on Dec. 24, 2025.
The largest Powerball payout was just over $2 billion from a ticket bought in 2022 in California.
The top 10 payouts can be seen in the table below.