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Powerball's $600 Million Jackpot Is the First Run With UK Players From Day One. Here's What That Changed

Saturday's $600M Powerball (cash $252.7M) is the first run with UK players from drawing one. It got here in 28 drawings, not 36. What changed, and what didn't.

Jackpot Dreaming Editorial9 min read

A cream china teacup and a red enamel mug on a linen table runner, with one brass bowl of gold coins between them, in warm window light

Figures were checked the morning of Oct. 17, 2026, against powerball.com and state lottery sites. Estimates can change before the drawing as sales come in, and the drawing has not taken place yet. Jackpot Dreaming is a personal project and is not affiliated with Powerball, the UK National Lottery or any state lottery.

The quiet change behind a loud number

Few people looking at a $600 million billboard are thinking about Britain. But something real changed this summer, and this is the first jackpot run that shows it from start to finish.

On April 14, 2026, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) announced a deal with Allwyn UK, which runs the UK National Lottery. UK tickets went on sale July 21, and UK players could play for the jackpot starting with the Wednesday, July 22 drawing. The UK Gambling Commission's license for the game took effect July 21.

The pitch was simple: more players feed the same jackpot, so it should grow faster. "As more people play, the faster jackpots grow," Powerball Product Group Chair Matt Strawn said in April.

What actually changed (and what didn't)

The UK piece is narrower than it sounds. Per Powerball's FAQ:

  • Only the jackpot is shared. U.S. lotteries and the UK National Lottery pool money for the jackpot and nothing else. Lower-tier prizes are funded and paid separately in each country.
  • Each UK play adds the same fixed U.S. dollar amount to the jackpot as a U.S. play.
  • Nothing changes for U.S. players. Still $2 a play, still five numbers from 1 to 69 plus a Powerball from 1 to 26, still drawings Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET.
  • The odds didn't move. The jackpot is still 1 in 292,201,338. More players means more money in the pot and more tickets that could share it, not better odds.

On the UK side, a line costs £4 and a jackpot winner gets no cash option; the prize is paid over 30 years. The UK jackpot is also quoted after tax in pounds, while ours is quoted before tax, so Powerball says the two aren't directly comparable.

A small sign they're in the mix: powerball.com's Oct. 12 results list "UK" on the Match 5 line. That's a UK lower-tier prize, not a jackpot.

How this run climbed to $600 million

The last jackpot was won Aug. 12, when a $2 Quick Pick sold at a Hy-Vee in Quincy, Illinois, hit all six numbers for $1.04 billion. The winner took the $450.5 million cash option and stayed anonymous, according to the Illinois Lottery.

The next drawing, Aug. 15, was listed at $22 million. Twenty-seven drawings later there's still no winner. Here's how that compares with the run before it, which started May 4 and ended with the Illinois ticket. Figures are what powerball.com lists on each drawing's results page.

Advertised jackpot first hit This run (from Aug. 15) Last run (May 4 to Aug. 12)
$100 million Drawing 7 (Aug. 29, $119M) Drawing 7 (May 18, $101M)
$200 million Drawing 12 (Sept. 9, $207M) Drawing 15 (June 6, $213M)
$300 million Drawing 17 (Sept. 21, $314M) Drawing 21 (June 20, $300M)
$400 million Drawing 21 (Sept. 30, $411M) Drawing 27 (July 4, $403M)
$500 million Drawing 25 (Oct. 10, $519M) Drawing 33 (July 18, $526M)
$600 million Drawing 28 (Oct. 17, $600M, estimate) Drawing 36 (July 25, $613M)

The first two weeks look about the same. After that, this run pulls ahead.

The cash value is the fairer comparison

Advertised jackpots depend partly on interest rates, so comparing them across months can mislead. Cash value is closer to the real money in the pool, and the gap still shows up there. After drawing 27, this run's cash value was $231.9 million (Oct. 14). The last run, after its 27th drawing, was at $180.7 million (July 4). That's about $51.2 million more in the pot at the same point.

Our read, not an official finding

There's a few reasons to be careful here. Two runs is a tiny sample. Summer and fall sales can differ, and Powerball itself says seasonality and a big Mega Millions jackpot can affect sales. The last run also had UK players for its final 10 drawings, starting July 22. Powerball hasn't published a breakdown of how much of this run's growth came from UK tickets, and we haven't found one from Allwyn either.

So the honest version is this: the run grew faster, in the way the game said UK sales would push it. We can't tell you how much of that is the UK.

Why one site says $252.7 million and another says $246 million

Check a few sites this morning and you may see two cash values. Powerball.com showed $252.7 million. The Texas Lottery and California Lottery sites still showed $246 million next to the same $600 million jackpot.

That's timing, not a scandal. Powerball's FAQ says the cash value is roughly the money that has to be in the jackpot pool on drawing day to fund the advertised annuity, and that both figures stay estimates until sales are final. Wednesday's drawing was advertised at $562 million that morning; its results page now lists $566 million, with $231.9 million cash.

The ratio has drifted too. Cash was about 44% of the advertised jackpot in late July. Today it's about 42%. Powerball says the "annuity factor," built from interest rates on the securities that fund the payments, is a key input, and that higher rates mean a higher advertised prize. We use powerball.com's figure here and in the calculator.

What a winner would take home, and the UK split

Everything below comes from our calculator at the $252.7 million cash estimate: sole winner, single filer, prize as the only income.

  • Federal tax is about $93,449,000. The lottery withholds 24% up front, or $60,648,000, so more is due at filing.
  • No-tax states (Texas, Florida, California and others): about $159,251,000 kept.
  • Arizona: about $152,933,500. Illinois: about $146,742,350. New York City: about $121,912,920.
  • Annuity: the first of 30 payments would be about $9.03 million before tax, and the last about $37.17 million, since each payment is 5% bigger than the one before.

Now the new wrinkle. If a U.S. ticket and a UK ticket both hit, Powerball splits the jackpot's cash value evenly between them. The UK half moves to the UK National Lottery, which pays its winner over 30 years. The U.S. winner still picks cash or annuity.

At today's estimate, half the cash is $126.35 million before tax. In a no-tax state that's about $79,650,500 after federal tax, or about $73,396,175 in Illinois. Splits with another U.S. ticket work the same way; our office pool guide covers the paperwork side.

Our site's expected-value estimate for a $2 play Saturday is about $1.14 before tax, counting lower-tier prizes and the chance of a split. That's roughly a 43% average loss. A bigger player pool doesn't fix that.

FAQ

How did the Powerball jackpot reach $600 million?

It hasn't been won since a single Illinois ticket took $1.04 billion on Aug. 12, 2026. Saturday, Oct. 17 is the 28th drawing since then, with each miss rolling money into the next jackpot.

Do UK players change my odds of winning Powerball?

No. The jackpot odds are still 1 in 292,201,338, because the number fields haven't changed. More players add money to the jackpot and make a shared jackpot a little more likely, but your ticket's odds are the same.

What happens if a UK player and a U.S. player both win?

Per Powerball's FAQ, the jackpot's cash value is split equally by the number of winning tickets. The UK share goes to the UK National Lottery, which pays its winner over 30 years. A U.S. winner can still choose cash or the annuity.

What is the cash value of Saturday's $600 million Powerball?

Powerball.com listed $252.7 million on Saturday morning. Some state lottery sites still showed an earlier $246 million estimate. Both are estimates until sales are final.

How much would a $600 million winner keep after taxes?

At the $252.7 million cash value, a sole winner filing single keeps about $159.3 million after federal tax in states that don't tax the prize, about $152.9 million in Arizona and about $121.9 million in New York City, per our calculator.

Sources

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