Dec. 21 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $1.6 billion after no one claimed the winning ticket following Saturday’s drawing.
There have been 45 consecutive drawings with no grand-prize winner.
The new jackpot is the fourth largest in the game’s history, and the fifth biggest among all U.S. lottery jackpots, Powerball said.
Saturday’s was the second consecutive drawing with a jackpot in excess of $1 billion that produced no winner.
The last Powerball winner claimed $1.787 billion in September. There have been 45 consecutive winnerless drawings since.
Powerball winners have the choice between taking an annual payout, or a lump-sum prize. If someone wins Monday’s drawing, they will have the option of receiving a $1.6 billion annuitized payment, or a $735.5 million one-time prize.
There was no grand prize winner Saturday, but 112 ticket holders claimed a $50,000 payout, and 22 claimed $150,000 each.
Tickets sold in California, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio each won $1 million.
A winner of the Double Play drawing in New Jersey claimed a $500,000 prize, Powerball said.
The odds of winning the grand prize jackpot are one in 292.2 million, according to Powerball, though they are better for smaller prizes, which can range to as low as $4. Tickets are $2 each.
Drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. EST every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
The administration of President Donald Trump has announced it will halt the visa lottery programme that allowed the suspect in the Brown University shooting to enter the United States.
The lottery awards approximately 50,000 immigrant visas each year, according to the US government.
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But Trump has long opposed the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, sometimes known as the DV Programme. On Friday, his Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed that he had directed her to end the lottery immediately.
She also identified the suspect as Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who received his green card — a certificate for permanent residency — through the lottery in 2017.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem wrote in her social media statement.
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
Campaign to end visa lottery
Friday’s announcement is not the first time Trump has sought to wind down the diversity visa lottery.
Trump has long sought to narrow the country’s pathways to legal immigration, and he has used crime as a pretext for doing so.
Noem herself pointed out that, in 2017, Trump “fought” to shut down the diversity visa lottery in the wake of an attack in New York City that saw a truck ram into a crowd of people, killing eight.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in December 2017, Trump — then in his first term as president — called on Congress to “end the visa lottery system”.
“They have a lottery. You pick people. Do you think the country is giving us their best people? No,” Trump said.
“What kind of a system is that? They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people.”
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme was established in 1990 to ensure applicants from underrepresented countries had access to the US immigration system.
Immigration rights advocates have long argued that pathways to permanent residency are narrow for those who do not already have a spouse, relatives or some other kind of sponsor in the country.
The visa lottery helps to answer that need, by creating an alternative route to residency.
The lottery system selects visa recipients randomly, but critics argue it remains a long-shot avenue to gain US residency, and even successful applicants must still pass a rigorous screening process after the lottery.
While the Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme used to accept 55,000 applicants each year, in 2000 that number was lowered to its current level, according to the American Immigration Council.
Surveillance images released by police show Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University [Providence Police Dept via AP Photo]
A suspect identified
Friday’s decision to immediately suspend the lottery comes as new details emerge about Neves Valente, a physics scholar found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire after a nationwide manhunt.
The search began on December 13, when gunfire erupted on the campus of Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island.
The school’s fall semester was at its conclusion, and the exam period had begun. Students in the Barus and Holley physics laboratory were taking their end-of-course exams when a suspect, clad in black, entered the building and opened fire, killing two students and injuring nine others.
The physics lab was close to the edge of campus, and the suspect was able to escape on foot undetected.
The manhunt included several false starts, as authorities said they quickly detained a person of interest, only to release the individual without charges.
Then, on November 15, law enforcement officials announced that a plasma physics scholar named Nuno Loureiro had been found dead at his home, after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.
Loureiro was also a Portuguese immigrant, and he served as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a highly regarded science institution.
It was not immediately clear that the two shooting incidents were related, and authorities faced pressure to bring the Brown University shooter to justice, as the manhunt dragged on.
But on Thursday night, officials announced they had discovered Neves Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that they believed him to be responsible for both attacks.
Neves Valente had previously studied in a PhD programme at Brown, though he did not complete his degree, and he had been Loureiro’s classmate in Portugal.
Visa revocations
The administration of President Trump has a track record of revoking visas and terminating immigration programmes after high-profile attacks.
On November 26, for example, two National Guard members from West Virginia were shot while on patrol in Washington, DC, as part of Trump’s crime crackdown in the capital.
The suspect in that case was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who had previously worked with allied forces during the US-led war in Afghanistan.
One of the National Guard soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, ultimately died from her wounds.
Trump responded to the incident by announcing he was halting all visa applications and asylum requests from Afghan nationals, despite outcry from human rights and veterans groups.
The Republican leader also said he would pursue a “permanent pause” on entry for immigrants from “all third-world countries”.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Trump White House tightened entry for 19 countries it had identified in June as “high risk” and expanded the list of restrictions to include 20 more countries.
Trump has also taken targeted actions to strip individuals of their immigration status following shootings.
After the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in September, the Trump administration announced it was yanking visas from six foreign nationals who posted disrespectful comments or memes online about the attack. They hailed from countries ranging from Argentina to Brazil, Germany to Paraguay.
Free-speech advocates said the decision was a clear violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the freedom of expression.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to boot foreign nationals that do not align with its policy priorities.
“Aliens who take advantage of America’s hospitality while celebrating the assassination of our citizens will be removed,” the US State Department wrote in response.
The suspect in the Kirk shooting is a 22-year-old US citizen named Tyler James Robinson from Utah.
Studies have repeatedly shown that US-born citizens are more likely to commit violent crimes than immigrants.
WASHINGTON — President Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
Dec. 18 (UPI) — The Powerball prize has risen again with $1.5 billion now up for grabs this weekend with an estimated to be $686.5 million in cash.
Saturday’s prize is the fifth-biggest Powerball and seventh-largest U.S. jackpot.
“This jackpot is set to deliver the ultimate windfall,” according to Matt Strawn, Powerball’s product group chair and the Iowa Lottery‘s CEO.
No ticket matched all six winning numbers — 25, 33, 53, 62, 66 and Powerball 17 — so the jackpot increased as a result.
Meanwhile, lottery officials urged players to check tickets as many still won cash prizes.
Six players across the United States won $1 million each by matching all five white balls with winning tickets sold in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Two more tickets sold in Arizona and Massachusetts doubled their prize to $2 million via Power Play. The drawing also yielded 72 winners of $50,000 and 14 winners of $200,000.
However, California prizes vary based on sales and number of winners.
A Florida ticket hit all five numbers in the Double Play draw that won $500,000. Double Play, a $1 Powerball add-on, gives players a second shot at prizes of up to $10 million in a separate live-streamed draw on Powerball.com.
Saturday marks the 45th Powerball drawing in the current jackpot streak and the longest in game history.
The last jackpot win was on September 6, when tickets in Missouri and Texas shared $1.787 billion.
This is just the second time Powerball has seen consecutive jackpots over $1 billion, the first being in 2023 when California winners claimed prizes of $1.08 billion in July and $1.765 billion in October.
“The jackpot grows with every $2 ticket sold, and a portion of each ticket supports local public programs and services. We encourage everyone to have fun and play responsibly,” Strawn added.
Dec. 16 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot soared to an estimated $1.25 billion for next drawing now offering players a $572.1 million cash option and a holiday shot at winning the big prize, the multi-state lottery association said Tuesday.
Wednesday’s jackpot will be the second-largest Powerball prize this year. It marks only the second time in Powerball history it generated back-to-back billion-dollar payloads.
“Powerball has only seen back-to-back to billion-dollar jackpots twice, and this one has arrived just in time for the holidays,” according to Matt Strawn, Iowa Lottery CEO and Powerball’s product group chair.
On Monday, the jackpot rolled after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn: white balls 23, 35, 59, 63, 68 and red Powerball 2.
U.S. lottery officials reminded players to check tickets carefully to see if they have won any cash prizes.
Two tickets — one each in Arizona and California — matched all five white balls to win $1 million. The drawing also yielded 43 $50,000 winners and 14 $200,000 winners.
Wednesday marked the 44th drawing in the current Powerball run which was a record for the longest jackpot streak.
The last jackpot hit on Sept. 6 when winning tickets in Missouri and Texas shared a $1.787 billion payout.
Wednesday’s jackpot winner can pick between an annuity worth an estimated $1.25 billion or lump-sum payment of about $572.1 million before taxes.
Powerball, meanwhile, is available in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
But the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
Powerball drawings take place live from the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. EDT and can also be livestreamed on Powerball.com.
Strawn from the Iowa Lottery reiterated his excitement seeing the jackpot climb to its new level but advised the public to “please remember to play responsibly.”
“A single $2 ticket gives you a chance to win, while also supporting good causes in your community,” he added.
Powerball lottery ticket cards are on a rack at a gas station in Houston, Texas, in 2022. The Powerball jackpot reached an estimated $1.1 billion for Monday’s pick after 42 consecutive drawings with no winner. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 14 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $1.1 billion after there was no winner in Saturday’s drawing, among the largest prizes in the game’s history. The next drawing is scheduled for Monday night.
While there was no Powerball grand prize winner Saturday, ticket holders in 7 states won at least $1 million. Those tickets were sold in California. Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Monday’s Powerball winner, should there be one, would have the choice between annual payments totaling $1.1 billion, or a one-time $503.4 million lump sum payout.
Two tickets in Missouri and Texas split the $1.787 billion Powerball prize on Sept. 6, the last time anyone claimed the grand prize. Since then, there have been 42 consecutive drawings with no winners.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball. Tickets are $2 each. Monday’s drawing is scheduled to happen just before 11 p.m. EST in the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.
Powerball is available in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
