Powerball Winning Numbers September 30: Watch $301 Million Jackpot Drawing Live


Lottery fever is spreading across the country with a whopping $301 million jackpot up for grabs on September 30. Do you have Wednesday night’s winning numbers? If so, consider yourself extremely lucky — odds of matching all five white balls and the red Powerball are 1 in 175 million.

Watch the Powerball drawing live online at 10:59 p.m. ET on WRAL or downlonad the free LotteryHub app for iPhone or Android devices and watch the lottery results right on your phone.

The winning Powerball numbers drawn on September 30 are: 21, 39, 40, 55, 59, PB 17

While you wait to find out if you are the lottery’s newest mega-millionaire, you may be wondering how much you will get if you win the top Powerball prize on Wednesday night. If you choose to take all of your money in a single lump-sum payment, you will not get a check for $301 million. The one-time payment is based on the cash value of the jackpot that is currently $191.4 million.

That amount will be further reduced with the deduction of federal taxes (approximately 25 percent) unless you live in Puerto Rico. According to Fox News, winners in Puerto Rico may not have to pay federal tax on the jackpot because the current tax code exempts residents from paying tax.

State tax is also deducted from the prize amount, unless you live in one of nine states that don’t tax lottery winnings including California, Delaware, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.

Winners who prefer to take home the entire $301 million jackpot have the option of choosing a 30-year annuity. USA Mega reports that the winner would receive average yearly payments of $10,033,333 (before taxes) with the first payment issued shortly after lottery officials confirm that the ticket is valid.

Whether you take your windfall all at once or split up over 30 years, Wednesday night’s jackpot is an enormous amount of money. However, it’s not the biggest jackpot in the history of the Powerball lottery game. According to CNN Money, the biggest jackpot in the history of the game was $590.5 million, won by a Florida woman on May 18, 2013.

Here are the top five Powerball jackpots given away since the game started 23 years ago.

  • May 2013: The biggest jackpot in Powerball history is a $590.5 million jackpot won by an 84-year-old Florida resident.
  • November 2012: Two lottery players won $587.5 million — a man in Arizona and a woman in Missouri who claimed the jackpot with her husband.
  • February 2015: Three people in Texas, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina shared a $564 million jackpot.
  • August 2013: Three ticket holders shared a $448.4 million jackpot. Two tickets were purchased in New Jersey and one in Minnesota.
  • February 2014: One lucky man in California turned in the only winning ticket for the $425.3 jackpot.

If you beat the odds and win the $301 million Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night, it’s important to sign your ticket before you start freaking out over your big win. According to Forbes, signing your ticket is often overlooked but extremely important.

“A lottery ticket is a bearer instrument… whoever signs the ticket and presents a photo ID can claim the prize. So if you haven’t signed the ticket and it blows out of your hand while you are waiting for a bus, you’ve lost the loot.”

Powerball tickets are $2 each, and you can increase your non-jackpot prizes by paying an extra $1 PowerPlay feature. Check the “yes” box in the yellow PowerPlay box on the lottery slip to add this option to your ticket. Tickets can be purchased at lottery retailers in 44 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Cut off times for purchasing a ticket varies, but most retailers halt sales an hour before the drawing.

[Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]

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