On Christmas Eve one lucky person from Arkansas managed to win the $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot.

This has become the second-largest windfall jackpot ever won in the US. In the last three months, no substantial windfall jackpots have been pulled.

Last time, the winners were from Texas and Missouri on September 6. Matt Strawn, the CEO of the Iowa Lottery, had this to say to the winner on the Powerball website:

“Congratulations to the newest Powerball jackpot winner! This is truly an extraordinary, life-changing prize”.

Strawn, who is also the Powerball product group chair, followed that up with a thank you to everyone who had participated in the lottery.

Getting the Prize

Winners have a choice on how they wish to receive their prize. They can either partially receive the money every year, where they get a part of the money on the spot.

This goes on for 29 more years, where they keep on receiving their money, with it increasing by 5% each time until the full amount, minus taxes, is paid out.

The second option is an immediate payout of a before-tax amount that comes out to $834.9 million.

Payouts in California are pari‑mutuel, so the pot depends on the number of tickets bought as well as on how soon a jackpot is won. A total of 8 tickets in the country matched the five white balls.

Each of the lucky ticket holders has been awarded $1 million. Here are the following states in which a winning ticket had been sold: California, Indiana, Michigan, New York (2), Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

There were 114 smaller winning tickets that were worth $50,000, as well as additional tickets worth $100,000 that numbered 31.

A Holiday Surprise

This is not the first time someone has won a huge Powerball jackpot around the winter holidays.

According to Powerball, their last Christmas Eve jackpot was won all the way back in 2011.

The company also shared that on 4 separate Christmas days, they have had sweepstake winners; their last recorded one was in 2013.