No matter how lucky you are, Uncle Sam will still come knocking. But how much of the lottery prize would you take home after taxes? We’ll break it down – and suggest five ways to safely invest your windfall. While the odds of becoming a Powerball winner are slim ( 1 in 292.2 million to be exact), it’s hard to resist daydreaming about what you’d do with all that money. Since then, there were 35 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The last Powerball winner also came out of California, way back on July 19. The winning ticket was sold at a liquor store in California. Wednesday night's Powerball drawing yielded a single winning ticket worth a staggering $1.765 billion (yes, billion with a b.) According to the Multi-State Lottery Association, it's the second largest Powerball jackpot ever - and second largest among all U.S.