Chavdar Vasilev is a journalist covering the casino and sports betting market sectors for CasinoBeats. He joined CasinoBeats in May 2025 and reports on industry-shaping stories across the US and beyond, including legislative debates, market...
Read Full BioAfter no one won the September 1 drawing, the Powerball jackpot has surged to $1.3 billion for the September 3 drawing. That makes it the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the ninth-largest US lottery prize in history. The cash option for the award is $589 million before taxes.
The jackpot reached the $1.3 billion mark after there was no winning ticket for the Labor Day drawing (8, 23, 25, 40, 53, and Powerball 5). Still, two players in Montana and North Carolina claimed $2 million prizes, while 10 others won $1 million.
Powerball tickets cost $2, and the game is available in 45 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. The odds of winning any prize are roughly 1 in 25.
Previous Billion-Dollar Powerball Jackpots
With the September 3 drawing, Powerball adds another milestone to its notable list of billion-dollar jackpots. Only five others have crossed the threshold before:
- $2.04 billion – November 2022 (California)
- $1.765 billion – October 2023 (California)
- $1.586 billion – January 2016 (California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.326 billion – April 2024 (Oregon)
- $1.08 billion – July 2023 (California)
The September 3 jackpot is now the sixth to enter this rarefied club. It could climb to the fourth-largest if interest increases, as the April 2024 prize was $1.326 billion.
Mega Millions’ Billion-Dollar Jackpots
Powerball isn’t the only game to deliver eye-popping jackpots. Mega Millions has produced seven billion-dollar wins since 2018:
- $1.602 billion – August 2023 (Florida)
- $1.537 billion – October 2018 (South Carolina).
- $1.348 billion – January 2023 (Maine).
- $1.337 billion – July 2022 (Illinois).
- $1.269 billion – December 2024 (California).
- $1.128 billion – March 2024 (New Jersey).
- $1.050 billion – January 2021 (Michigan).
Why Mega Millions Raised Ticket Prices
In April this year, Mega Millions raised the ticket cost from $2 to $5. That marked only the second price increase in the game’s 23-year history.
Officials say the change is designed to produce larger jackpots more often. At the same time, it improves the odds (from about 1 in 303 million to 1 in 290 million). The starting jackpot also rose from $20 million to $50 million.
The higher ticket price now includes the Megaplier, which can multiply non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times. The Multiplier was an additional cost before. Minimum prizes also increased, from $2 to $10.
The expectation is that billion-dollar jackpots will now appear with greater frequency. Still, there has not been a billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot in 2025 yet.
Some players have criticized the move, saying the higher cost pushes them toward Powerball tickets, which remain $2.
Where to Buy Powerball Tickets Online
In some states, lottery players can purchase tickets online.
Official State Lotteries
Over a dozen states and Washington, D.C. permit players to purchase tickets online directly from their respective lottery websites or apps:
- Connecticut
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Kansas
- New Hampshire
- New York*
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Pennsylvania
- Virginia
- Washington D.C.
- West Virginia
*by subscription only
Massachusetts, the state with the highest lottery spending per capita, will also join that list on July 1, 2026.
Lottery Courier Services
In some states without online lotteries, players can purchase tickets through lottery courier services, such as Jackpocket, Lotto.com, Jackpot.com, and TheLotter.
Lottery courier apps allow users to place orders for lottery tickets through their apps. The courier then purchases the physical ticket on the user’s behalf and uploads an image of it to the app.
If the ticket is a winner, the app directly pays the winnings of up to $600. For bigger prizes, it arranges the delivery of the physical ticket, and the user must claim the winnings in person.
An important note for Texas residents is that the state banned all online lottery sales and courier services as of September 1. The state is one of the few that have explicitly outlawed these services.
