A Powerball ticket sold at a Murphy USA on Tanglewood Parkway in Elizabeth City matched four white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000, North Carolina's consolation prize as the national jackpot climbed to $1 billion ahead of Wednesday's drawing. The $50,000 ticket came from the August 10 drawing, part of a run that has now stretched 44 consecutive drawings without a grand-prize winner.
That streak is the second-longest in the game's 34-year history, according to Morningstar, which notes the current rollover began after a May 2 drawing split a $20 million jackpot between winners in Florida and Texas. As reported by WCCB Charlotte, the winner of Wednesday's drawing can choose between the $1 billion annuity or a $433.1 million lump-sum cash payout, and the odds of matching all six numbers remain fixed at 1 in 292 million. Tickets cost $2 and are available at lottery retail locations, through the NC Lottery's official mobile app, or via online play on nclottery.com, per the station's report.
A Billion-Dollar Milestone for 2026
Wednesday's jackpot is the first Powerball grand prize to reach 10 figures in 2026 and ranks as the eighth-largest in the game's history, according to Forbes. For comparison, the largest Powerball jackpot ever, $2.04 billion, was won by a single ticket in California in November 2022, the outlet notes. Mark Michalko, chief executive officer of the N.C. Education Lottery, said North Carolina players now have an opportunity to play for a billion-dollar jackpot, according to the station's report.
Ticket sales surged more than 86% compared to the prior Monday drawing, prompting lottery officials to boost the estimated annuity jackpot by $25 million, from $975 million to $1 billion, per a Powerball release distributed through PR Newswire. That surge follows Powerball's expansion into the United Kingdom in July, when the game partnered with Allwyn UK to make the UK National Lottery the first non-U.S. operator to join its shared jackpot pool, according to NPR. UK sales launched July 21 for a £4 entry fee, while U.S. players still pay the standard $2, with jackpot odds unchanged across both markets, the report notes.
What a North Carolina Winner Would Actually Take Home
Should a North Carolina resident claim the $433.1 million cash option, they would face an automatic 24% federal withholding on top of the state's flat 3.99% individual income tax rate for 2026, according to Catalina Structured Funding. Those combined withholdings would push a winner's net take-home earnings well under $300 million, even before accounting for any additional federal liability owed at tax time.
A winner claiming $5 million or more can now also keep their identity permanently confidential under North Carolina's Senate Bill 402, according to BillTrack50. Previous state law only allowed temporary anonymity for 90 days, and only on prizes exceeding $50 million, the tracking service notes.
Lottery Dollars Fund Record School Spending
The N.C. Education Lottery generated a record $1.14 billion for state public education programs in fiscal year 2026, drawn from $7.1 billion in total sales, according to NASPL. It marked the fourth consecutive year the lottery has provided more than $1 billion for education, bringing total funding raised since 2006 to more than $13.4 billion, per the association's report.
North Carolina has seen major Powerball activity before this year. A Halifax County resident quietly claimed a $209 million jackpot from a ticket bought in Roanoke Rapids, the state's second-largest lottery prize ever, after winning on January 21. That winner selected a $95.3 million cash lump sum and took home $68.6 million after tax withholdings.
Nationally, the current run trails the record set on Christmas Eve 2025, when a single Powerball ticket sold in Cabot, Arkansas, matched all numbers to win $1.817 billion, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, according to Business Insider. That winner chose an $834.9 million lump-sum cash payout, the outlet reported. Since Powerball's creation in 1992, the game has generated roughly $38 billion for public causes and state-designated beneficiaries across participating jurisdictions, with more than half of every $2 ticket remaining in the selling state to fund local services, per the Powerball release.
