Powerball Winning Numbers For 9/25/19 Drawing: $40M Jackpot

The Powerball jackpot has reached $40 million for the winning ticket on Wednesday, Sept. 25. The one-time cash payout for tonight's Powerball drawing will be $27.6 million.

The winning Powerball numbers are drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time, with Powerball results usually posted within five minutes.

In most states, ticket sales end at least one hour before the drawing, but a state may halt sales earlier, such as Illinois, which stops sales three hours before the drawing. In Maryland and New Jersey, ticket sales end at 9:59 p.m.; in Virginia, they close at 10 p.m. Check with your state lottery for the cut-off time.

The winning Powerball numbers for Wednesday, Sept. 25, are 37, 43, 44, 45, 53 and the Powerball of 25.

To win the Powerball jackpot a player must match all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. The odds of picking the correct Powerball grand prize numbers are one in 292,201,338, which doesn't change even if more players buy tickets when the jackpot is larger.

You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot if you let the computer select your numbers, according to the officials with the lottery. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years had numbers picked by a computer.

Powerball tickets cost $2 each. Find locations where you can buy your Powerball tickets here.

Winners can choose to either have the full jackpot amount paid out in 30 installments over 29 years, or winners can take one lump sum payment that is smaller than the actual total.

The largest Powerball jackpot in history was $1.586 billion, which was split by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in January 2016.

— By Patch editors Deb Belt and Elizabeth Janney