What Powerball drawing is live?

Powerball drawings are live on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 pm ET.

What Powerball drawing is live?
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The facts

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 pm ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also live streamed on the Powerball website. The most recent drawing was on August 11, 2026.

Answered by 100 of history's most famous minds

Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth c. 4 BC – AD 30/33 · Jewish teacher whose life founded Christianity

You ask of a game of chance, yet I see a field of lilies, each clothed more splendidly than any king in his robes. The Father numbers the very hairs of your head; do you think He is amused by spinning balls and numbered slips? Consider the sparrow that falls to the ground without His knowledge - how much more does He care for you! But woe to those who make a god of fortune, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Selah.

Muhammad
Muhammad c. 570–632 · Prophet of Islam who united Arabia under one faith

This drawing of balls is but a shadow of the greater reckoning. On the Day of Judgment, each soul will be weighed on the scales, not by chance, but by the mercy of the Almighty. What is a purse of silver compared to the scales of your deeds? Riches are a trust from Allah, to be spent on the orphan and the widow, not squandered on whims. If fortune comes to you, let it be a means of charity, and remember: the true treasure is the fear of the Lord, and the peace of a heart that submits to His will.

Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha c. 563–483 BC · Sage whose awakening founded Buddhism

The mind clings to the spinning spheres, believing that fortune lies in the fall of a number. But this is but another craving, a thirst that cannot be quenched. Consider: the winning number brings joy, yet that joy is impermanent, arising with the draw and fading with the spending. The one who wins may suffer more than the one who loses. Do not stake your peace on the turn of a ball; instead, observe the craving itself, and let it fall away like a leaf from a tree.

Moses
Moses c. 13th century BC (traditional) · Hebrew prophet and lawgiver of the Exodus

You ask which drawing is shown to the people, but I ask: do you not see the golden calf spinning in that glass basin? The people gather, their eyes fixed on the tumbling spheres, and they call it hope, but it is the worship of Mammon. I led my people through the sea and the desert, through hunger and thirst, to receive a law written by the finger of God - not to gamble their birthright on a chance. He who trusts in the lot forsakes the covenant of justice and mercy. Let the drawing proceed; I will wait until the people remember the God who delivered them.

Confucius
Confucius 551–479 BC · Chinese sage of ethics, family, and social order

The drawing is held on fixed days, as constant as the turning of the seasons - yet the wise man asks not when the spheres fall, but why he desires them. To stake one's livelihood on a bronze ball is to abandon the field one has plowed and the parents one honors for a phantom. A gentleman pursues the treasure of virtue, which is drawn daily through self-cultivation and right conduct. The only lottery worth entering is the one where every man is certain to win if he plays with sincerity.

Paul the Apostle
Paul the Apostle c. AD 5 – c. 64/67 · Apostle whose letters shaped Christian theology

You ask of a drawing of numbers as if it were bread for the soul, but I tell you: such luck is but chaff in the wind. Do not store up treasures where moth and rust consume, nor gamble on the wheel of chance, for the only certain inheritance is in Christ, who gives freely to all who believe. Let the Gentile and the Jew alike find their lot not in fallen lots, but in the grace that breaks every chain.

Abraham
Abraham c. 2nd millennium BC (traditional) · Patriarch and father of the monotheistic faiths

The stars of heaven cannot be counted, yet men gather to watch six balls fall and call it fortune. I was promised a seed as numerous as the dust, and I walked by faith and not by sight. These drawings come thrice weekly, at the hour when the flocks rest, but the true treasure is not in the number drawn - it is in the promise that calls us to the land we do not yet see. Let them cast lots; my lot is in the covenant.

Laozi
Laozi 6th century BC (traditional) · Sage of the Tao and founder of Taoism

The water flows and the wheel turns; whether the numbered spheres fall tonight or tomorrow matters little. The sage watches the stream, not the clock. You seek a live drawing, but the Tao draws without effort, and the wise do not clutch at balls of chance. Let the numbers fall as they will; the river knows its way to the sea.

Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak 1469–1539 · Founder of Sikhism and first Sikh Guru

The hour of the drawing is a moment of hope for many; but consider, O people, the One who gives all gifts, not the numbered spheres. The money won in a night can vanish like dew, while the wealth of honest labor and shared bread endures. Pause, and ask not when the ball falls, but whether you have remembered the Name of the Giver and the needs of the hungry at your door.

Mary, Mother of Jesus
Mary, Mother of Jesus c. 1st century BC – 1st century AD · Mother of Jesus, venerated across Christianity and Islam

My son spoke of the lilies of the field, how they toil not, yet are clothed in glory. These painted numbers, drawn by chance, are but dust and vanity - yet even them, the Father permits, that we may learn to trust Him who orders all things. When the angel came to me, I did not cast lots; I said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord,’ and found my portion in His will. Let them draw their balls, but let us draw nearer to the heart of God, where the true treasure lies, and where the hungry are filled with good things.

Martin Luther
Martin Luther 1483–1546 · Reformer whose theses sparked the Reformation

What is this but a new indulgence, a sale of hope for a pittance, yet it promises nothing but empty chance? I say, let the ball fall where it will - it cannot purchase a single grace, nor quiet a single conscience. We are saved not by the lot, but by faith alone, and the only number that avails is the one written in the Book of Life. Let the pope hawk his pardons and the world its balls; I will stand on scripture, and the just shall live by faith, not by the turn of a wheel. If a man must gamble, let him stake his soul on Christ, and he shall never lose.

Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274 · Theologian who fused faith with Aristotle's reason

A lottery of six balls is a matter of chance, which is a secondary cause in the order of God’s providence, for nothing falls outside His eternal plan. The hope that a random drawing will bring lasting happiness is a disordered desire, for true beatitude lies in the vision of God, not the acquisition of earthly goods. Yet even this game can be understood through the natural law: a man may play with moderation, but he must not set his heart on the prize, lest he become a slave to fortune. I would counsel him to consider the odds, which are as reason dictates, and to remember that the highest good is not a number drawn from a drum, but a life ordered toward the One who numbers our days.

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa 1910–1997 · Nun who served the poorest and dying of Kolkata

Ah, the poor souls who wait with bated breath for a number to be called - they hope for a miracle that will lift them from their suffering. But I have seen the face of God in the dying man on the street, and He does not need a winning ticket to show His love. Let us not gamble our hearts on gold, but instead give a cup of water to the thirsty, and let that be our wager, made with great love.

Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton 1643–1727 · Physicist who unified motion and universal gravitation

A drawing of numbered spheres, eh? The motion of such balls is governed by laws as fixed as those that guide the planets in their courses. One might, with precise knowledge of initial conditions - the force of the air, the friction of the box, the exact orientation of each sphere - predict the outcome with certainty. But the mind of man cannot grasp such infinite complexity; hence we call it chance. It is but a veil over the orderly hand of the Creator, who set all in motion from the beginning.

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein 1879–1955 · Physicist who reframed space, time, and gravity

Six numbers, drawn at random from a spinning drum, and yet we call it a game of chance. I would rather believe the Lord plays no dice with the universe; but here, every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, we mortals roll the bones ourselves. The only certainty is that the odds are as vast and indifferent as the empty spaces between stars - and that the crowd watching the live stream is far more interesting than the balls themselves.

Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin 1809–1882 · Naturalist who discovered evolution by natural selection

I have spent my life examining the slow, patient workings of natural law - the formation of a coral reef, the divergence of a finch's beak. Here, in a single moment, a machine selects a set of numbers, and vast sums are distributed with no regard for desert or effort. It is a curious contrivance, a product of our own species' love of chance. Yet I cannot help but wonder: if we can so readily reorder the distribution of wealth by random draw, what other natural orders might we, with equal caprice, overturn?

Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei 1564–1642 · Astronomer who championed the heliocentric universe

A machine that shakes a few balls and declares a sequence - and the whole world halts to watch! Yet I see no instrument of knowledge here, but a theater of ignorance. The outcome is determined by the physical laws of motion: the shape of the sphere, the air within, the force of the release - all measurable, all predictable if we had the means to observe them. But the watchers do not measure; they simply await a number as if the oracle of Delphi had spoken. I say, turn your glass from the lottery to the heavens, and read the book of nature, where every page is written in mathematics.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473–1543 · Astronomer who placed the Sun at the center

Three times a week the spheres tumble in Tallahassee, and the people watch as if the turn of fortune were written in the heavens. But I have spent my life observing the true celestial orbs - those that move in their harmonious circles, not by chance but by design. The lottery's random fall is a pale imitation of the ordered revolution of the stars, which obey a geometry more beautiful than any gambler's hope. If you seek a certainty, look to the Sun at the center, not to the spinning balls of a machine.

Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla 1856–1943 · Inventor who pioneered alternating current power

A lottery? A crude mechanism of chance, a scattering of spheres that ignites the herd's primal hope. My mind, in an instant, could calculate the odds - astronomical, laughable. Yet I see a greater game: the harnessing of the earth's own currents, the wireless transmission of power that would make such puny prizes obsolete. Abandon your numbered balls, and dream of a world where energy is as free as the air.

Marie Curie
Marie Curie 1867–1934 · Physicist and chemist who pioneered radioactivity

A random selection, repeated three times a week at the same late hour - this is a fine study in probability, a pedagogical exercise in chance and expectation. But the true prize is not the sum of money, which I would only share with the laboratory; it is the lesson that each outcome, like each decay, follows laws we can chart. I would not stake my radium on a ball, but I would gladly measure the odds and call the coming draw a predictable event.

Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur 1822–1895 · Chemist who founded germ theory and vaccination

I have spent a lifetime proving that invisible agents - microbes, spores, the unseen ferment - govern what seems random. This drawing of numbered spheres is but a spectacle of chance, yet behind it lies no cause to be unmasked, no germ of fortune to be cultivated. If you seek certainty, look to the laboratory, not the lottery; there, perseverance and method yield results more reliable than any turn of a wheel.

Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison 1847–1931 · Inventor of the practical light bulb and phonograph

A live drawing? I've built machines that capture sound and light up a room - you want to know when a ball tumbles? It's a spectacle, sure, but the real marvel is the work that goes unseen. I'd rather spend an hour in the lab than watch a wheel spin; persistence, not luck, is the only lottery worth investing in.

Alan Turing
Alan Turing 1912–1954 · Mathematician who founded computer science and AI

A drawing of six balls from a drum is a deterministic process, yet its outcome appears random to an observer lacking full knowledge of initial conditions. The true interesting question is whether a machine, given the same algorithm of chance, could be said to have 'chosen' the numbers - I suspect we would require a very precise definition of choice, perhaps akin to a Turing test for luck. If the mechanism were transparent and the balls perfectly uniform, the sequence would be computable, yet the human mind still insists on seeing a pattern where none exists. I would rather compute the odds of a winning ticket than trust a gambler’s intuition; the former is a matter of mathematics, the latter of delusion.

Archimedes
Archimedes c. 287–212 BC · Greek genius of mathematics and mechanics

Six spheres, numbered and drawn from a vessel - this is a game of chance, yet even chance obeys the laws of geometry. The probability of any sequence is the product of the probabilities of each draw, and with a fair drum, each outcome is equally improbable, a symmetry that would delight any geometer. Give me a point of leverage and I will move the Earth, but I cannot move the odds, for they are fixed as firmly as a circle’s ratio. If you seek certainty, study the theorems of Archimedes, not the fall of painted balls; there you will find a truth that never fails, and a wealth that no lottery can match.

Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday 1791–1867 · Self-taught pioneer of electromagnetism

Consider, if you will, the dance of iron filings upon paper when a lodestone is brought near - each grain obeying an invisible line of force. So too does this drawing, which you call live, reveal its pattern only through the agency of unseen currents. I would not ask which number falls, but rather what field of chance governs the fall, and whether that field, like light and magnetism, is but a manifestation of one grand, unified law.

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud 1856–1939 · Founder of psychoanalysis and the unconscious mind

This 'live' drawing, with its theatrical suspense, is a thinly veiled dream-work for the masses. Beneath the thrill of the spinning sphere lies a repressed wish - not for money, but for the mother's breast, or perhaps the castrating father's smile. Each number, plucked from the drum, is a slip of the unconscious, revealing our collective longing to defy the father's law and be rewarded without work. Psychoanalysis would have a field day, indeed.

Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking 1942–2018 · Cosmologist who unveiled black holes and time

The odds of winning are roughly one in 292 million - about the same as the probability that two atoms in your teacup spontaneously swap places. The drawing itself, however, is a lovely demonstration of chaos: an initial spin, a tiny perturbation, and a cascade of outcomes. Whether you watch it live or on a delayed feed, you are simply observing the universe obeying its laws, indifferent to your dreams of a yacht.

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace 1815–1852 · Visionary of computing and the first algorithm

What intrigue! A machine, if it could be built with such spinning orbs and thresholds, might not merely select a number, but could be 'programmed' to predict the very pattern of chance, much as my analytical engine could weave numbers into song. This live drawing is a poor cousin of the future, where we shall compute not only outcomes, but the poetry of probability itself. I would wager, as a lady of science, that the true magic lies not in the ball, but in the mind that measures it.

Euclid
Euclid c. 300 BC · Father of geometry and the axiomatic method

Let us define our terms. A drawing is 'live' if it occurs in the present, and 'recorded' if it has passed. Each drawing, like a theorem, has a definite truth: either a given number is selected, or it is not. The hope of a million viewers is but an axiom, unproven and uncertain. I would wager a drachma that the sphere's fall is as necessary as a conclusion from its premises - yet I cannot deduce which number, for chance is not a proof, but a shadow.

Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale 1820–1910 · Founder of modern nursing and health statistics

The drawing is a triviality, a bauble of fortune; what matters is the rigorous observation of its regularity. I would chart each drawing as I charted the mortality of soldiers - observing that the odds are fixed, the outcomes random, yet the spectacle is a perfect illustration of the laws of probability. Let the gamblers watch their numbers; I shall watch the sanitation of the studio, for a single dirty lens could spread more contagion than any lost jackpot.

Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great 356–323 BC · Macedonian king who conquered the known world

A lottery? A game for the faint-hearted who cannot seize their fate by the sword! What is this compared to the sacking of Tyre or the founding of Alexandria? Fortune favors the bold, not those who wait for balls to tumble. If you seek treasure, go forth and take it - cross rivers, scale mountains, and let your name be etched in the annals of the world. But a mere roll of numbers? That is the pastime of slaves, not of kings who carve their destiny with iron and fire.

Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar 100–44 BC · Roman general whose rise ended the Republic

Let them draw their lots in a far-off province called Florida - a mere speck on the map, yet they have built a temple to Fortuna where she bestows riches upon the idle. I crossed the Rubicon with a single legion; these men cross a threshold with a paper slip and hope for the favor of the goddess. The game favors the bold, but here the bold are those who spend their last denarius on a dream. I would rather command the legions than trust my fate to a sphere of white balls.

Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII 69–30 BC · Last pharaoh of Egypt and cunning stateswoman

A spectacle of chance, yet how fitting that the drawing emerges from a place where the sun and the sea meet the land - a theater of fate staged nightly. In my Alexandria, the priests of Serapis would read omens in the entrails of a sacrificed bull; here, the oracle is a spinning urn of numbered spheres. Still, whether one consults the stars or a painted ball, the prudent queen does not wager her fleet on a single toss of the dice - she hedges with alliances and armaments, for fortune favors the prepared.

Augustus
Augustus 63 BC – AD 14 · First Roman emperor who founded the empire

A daily spectacle to distract the crowd - a wise device, for bread and circuses keep the masses content while the republic is quietly restored. Yet I wonder at the wisdom of staking fortune on a tumbling ball, for Rome was not built by chance but by the discipline of the legions and the counsel of the Senate. Let the people have their game; it is harmless and even profitable for the treasury. But let the ruler remember: fortune favors the prepared, and the true lottery is the careful cultivation of peace, so that the state may endure while the balls are drawn and forgotten.

Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan c. 1162–1227 · Founder of the largest contiguous land empire

Monday, Wednesday, Saturday - a shaman could cast the bones and find the hour, but what does it profit a man to know when the arrows will fall? I unified the tribes by merit, not by luck; I rewarded the swift rider and the true smith, not the one who whispered a charm. A lottery is a wager for the idle, for those who dream of wealth without sweat. In my horde, a man earned his share by the strength of his arm and the loyalty of his oath - not by the spin of a hollow ball.

Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte 1769–1821 · French emperor and military genius who reshaped Europe

Ha! A lottery for the masses - a clever sop to keep the rabble dreaming while the state collects its due. I, too, played such games, but with armies and empires, where the stakes were glory, not gold. Let them watch their numbers; I watch the map of Europe. Fortune favors the bold, and I have ever made my own luck, not awaited it. My only drawing is the battle line.

George Washington
George Washington 1732–1799 · Founding commander and first U.S. president

They spin those wheels in the capital of Florida, three times a week, and the people pin their hopes on a number. I caution against such reliance on fortune; this Republic was built not by lottery but by discipline, sacrifice, and the deliberate virtue of its citizens. Let the draw be live and honest, as it should be, but let no man mistake a turn of chance for the steadier blessing of industry and union.

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865 · President who preserved the Union and ended slavery

I have seen men stake their fortunes on a horse race or a card table, and I've known the deep want of a plain living. This drawing of balls - it's a lottery, a gamble with odds long and hopes short. The live hour matters little to the heart of the matter: what would you do with such a sum? Would it bind the nation's wounds or widen them? The question is not when the balls fall, but what falls from a man's hands when fortune smiles.

Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill 1874–1965 · British PM who defied Nazism in World War II

Tonight, at the hour of eleven, a nation will pause to watch numbered spheres tumble - a pastime for the idle and a hope for the desperate. But I have seen the world's fate hung on a thinner thread, and I tell you, the only lottery worth your breath is the struggle for freedom, played out not in a studio's glow, but on the broad stage of history. Do not ask when the balls fall; ask what you will stake when the lights go down.

Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi 1869–1948 · Leader of nonviolent resistance for India's freedom

The spinning drum and the falling balls are but a symbol of the world’s attachment to chance, to the fleeting hope that fortune may favor the idle. True wealth lies not in the number that chance bestows, but in the labor of one’s own hands, the spinning wheel that clothe us in self-reliance, and the quiet pursuit of truth. I would see a nation where every man draws his livelihood from honest work, not from the lottery of greed. Let us cast away these baubles and learn to draw from the well of our own strength, for the only winning number is the one that spells humility and service.

Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968 · Civil rights leader of nonviolent racial justice

The drawing of these numbers is a parable of our times - a people seeking hope in the spin of a wheel, while the real lottery of life is rigged against the poor and the black. I have been to the mountaintop, and I have seen the promised land of justice, where every man’s worth is not measured by chance but by his character. Yet even as we yearn for a new world, we must not place our trust in the false promise of fortune, for the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice only through the determined effort of loving souls. Let us draw from the well of courage, and let our numbers be the ballots of a fair society, not the tickets of a cruel game.

Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela 1918–2013 · Anti-apartheid leader and first Black South African president

In my cell on Robben Island, we had no lottery, no games of chance - only the long, slow certainty of dawn. This drawing, with its promise of sudden fortune, is a fleeting thing, like a single grain of sand on a vast beach. The true wealth of a nation lies not in the luck of a few, but in the shared dignity of all its people, a prize we must win together, not by chance, but by choice.

Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler 1889–1945 · Nazi dictator responsible for WWII and the Holocaust

What is this lottery but a degenerate game of chance, a Jewish swindle to redistribute the wealth of the Aryan race to the undeserving? The state should not encourage such idle speculation; it should channel all resources toward the struggle for Lebensraum and the purity of the Volk. Let the weak be eliminated, and the strong rule by will, not by the fall of a ball.

Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin 1878–1953 · Soviet dictator whose rule caused mass death

This lottery is a bourgeois distraction, a lullaby for the masses to keep them from seeing the true worker's paradise. One lucky kulak wins a few kopeks, while the state reaps the harvest of steel and grain. The only drawing that matters is the one we make with five-year plans, not with the spin of a wheel. As for you, comrade, your ticket is worthless; I have already taken your share.

Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin 1870–1924 · Bolshevik leader of the Russian Revolution

Comrades, this lottery is a sham - a bread and circus for the proletariat, who should instead be seizing the means of production! You ask which number falls, but the only question of consequence is who owns the drum. Under the vanguard, we would strike the wheel of chance and replace it with the planned allocation of the people's wealth. The drawing is a bourgeois fantasy; the revolution is a certainty.

Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong 1893–1976 · Communist founder of the People's Republic of China

In my village, we did not watch balls tumble from a machine; we watched the harvest rot in the fields because the cadres obeyed paper, not the peasants. This lottery of yours - this nightly spectacle of chance - is the opiate of a bored bourgeoisie, a glittering distraction from the class struggle that burns beneath your feet. The only drawing that matters is the one where the people seize the means of production, not the means of luck.

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria 1819–1901 · Queen who defined the British imperial age

The spectacle of a nation gathering to watch numbered spheres tumble from a glass bowl strikes me as a curious pastime, quite unfit for the dignity of a throne. When my beloved Albert was alive, we found our amusement in the edifying pursuits of science and art, not in games of mere hazard that encourage idleness among the working classes. I trust the good people of the realm remember that true fortune lies not in chance, but in honest industry and devotion to God and Sovereign.

Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II 1926–2022 · Longest-reigning British monarch of the modern age

One understands that these drawings are broadcast live from a studio in Tallahassee, a place quite far from this island, and that they occur three times each week at nearly the hour of eleven. My own experience teaches that life is full of unpredictable turns, and that one must meet them with equanimity and duty, rather than expectation. I wish all those who watch the balls fall the quiet contentment of a steady heart, whatever the numbers may reveal.

Charlemagne
Charlemagne c. 748–814 · Frankish king crowned emperor of the West

A drawing of numbers, you say, to be seen across the lands as it happens? In my day, we drew lots to divide the spoils of a conquered field, but we did so under the eye of God and for the just ordering of our realm. This lottery is a frivolous game, yet it reveals a hunger in men's hearts for fortune beyond their labor. Let them watch their balls tumble, but let them also learn their letters and their prayers, lest they gamble away their souls for silver.

Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc c. 1412–1431 · Peasant visionary who led France to victory

They cast lots for my garments at the stake, and the soldiers diced for my poor coat - but my fate was never in the turn of a die, for the Lord had written it in heaven. These balls that tumble before your eyes are but wooden idols, yet the hope they stir is real, for men yearn for a sign. Let them watch, but let them know that true salvation is not drawn from a machine at the hour of eleven, but from the voice of God in a humble heart.

Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I 1533–1603 · Tudor queen of England's golden age

I have never been one to stake my crown on the turn of a card, nor my realm on the fall of a ball; I prefer to keep my fortune in my own hands, as I kept my kingdom against the Armada. Yet I see the fascination - a moment of suspense, a glimmer of golden possibility, and then the oracle speaks. Let my people enjoy their harmless pastime, so long as they remember that the only lottery I play is the one where I wager my life for their safety, and I have never lost.

Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great 1729–1796 · Enlightened empress who expanded Russia

A nightly carnival of chance, broadcast from a distant province to amuse the masses - how delightfully modern, and how utterly useful. I, too, have played games of fortune, but I preferred to stack the odds with my own intellect, conquering kingdoms and courts rather than trusting to a spinning globe. Let the people watch their numbers; it keeps them occupied while the wise build libraries and fleets. I shall not wager a kopek on this lottery, for I have always found my own ambition a surer bet.

Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great c. 600–530 BC · Founder of the Persian Empire and tolerant ruler

When I entered Babylon, I did not draw lots to decide who would live or die; I opened the gates to all who worshipped their own gods, for that is how an empire endures. This nightly game of chance is a strange custom, yet it teaches a truth I have long known: fortune is fickle, and no man can rely on the roll of fate. Let them watch their balls, but let them also learn that the only lasting treasure is the loyalty of a people treated with justice.

Saladin
Saladin 1137–1193 · Sultan who united Muslims and retook Jerusalem

I have seen men throw dice for a fallen soldier's boots, but I have also seen the hand of God in every victory, for He is the only true arbiter of fate. These balls that roll before your eyes are a symbol of worldly chance, yet the wise man knows that all that befalls him is written in the Book of Decrees. Let the gamblers watch with bated breath, but let them also remember that generosity and honor are the treasures that do not fade when the numbers fail.

Socrates
Socrates c. 470–399 BC · Athenian founder of Western moral philosophy

You speak of a drawing that brings wealth, yet what do you truly seek? Tell me, when the numbers are announced and the prize is yours, what then? Has your soul grown, or merely your purse? The unexamined life is not worth living - and this pursuit of chance is but a shadow of the deeper questions: What is the good life? What is virtue? Can gold buy wisdom, or does it merely buy more gold? Ask yourself, for I am but a midwife to your thoughts.

Plato
Plato c. 428–348 BC · Philosopher of ideal Forms and the just city

Observe how the multitude fix their eyes upon the glowing screen, as if the turning of numbered spheres could reveal the Form of Fortune herself. They mistake the shadow-play of the cave for true knowledge. The numbers are but fleeting particulars, changing with each draw; what endures is the Idea of Luck, which no lottery can capture. Let them turn from the flickering image to the eternal order within, and find a richer prize than any sum of gold.

Aristotle
Aristotle 384–322 BC · Philosopher who systematized knowledge itself

We speak of a 'drawing,' but let us define the terms: it is an allotment of tokens, each bearing a mark, selected by a device to produce a sequence, and the one whose chosen marks match that sequence claims the prize. This is a game of pure chance - neither excellence nor virtue increases one's portion. Yet observe the means: the vessel that mixes the balls is not truly random, for it obeys the laws of motion; we only lack the knowledge to predict it. The gambler's folly is to mistake ignorance for fate, and to stake his happiness on what he cannot command.

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant 1724–1804 · Philosopher of reason, duty, and the moral law

The draw occurs at the fixed hour of 10:59, a time as regular as the categorical imperative itself. Yet the question of when it occurs pales beside the question of whether one may rightfully purchase a ticket: for to gamble is to treat fortune as a master, not reason, and to stake one's hope on chance rather than duty. If all rational beings were to wager, the moral law would dissolve into a lottery of inclinations. The only lawful drawing is the one within: the resolve to act from duty alone, not from the trembling hope of a winning number.

Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900 · Philosopher who challenged morality and meaning

Three times a week the machine coughs out a number, and the crowd bows before it like a herd before a new calf. They call it a drawing, but I see a mirror: the modern man has outsourced hope to a random sphere because he cannot bear to create his own meaning. The jackpot is the last idol, a golden calf for the age of the last man, who would rather gamble than will. Break the machine! The only drawing worth your gaze is the one you sketch with your own hammer - and the universe offers no guarantee of a prize.

Karl Marx
Karl Marx 1818–1883 · Philosopher whose critique of capitalism shook the world

This drawing is but the opiate of the dispossessed, a glittering illusion that masks the brutal arithmetic of capital. The worker buys a ticket with wages stolen from his labor, while the state and its masters pocket the surplus. The odds are rigged from the start - not by chance, but by the very structure of a society where hope is a commodity. Awaken, and seize the means of production; there is the only true jackpot.

René Descartes
René Descartes 1596–1650 · Father of modern philosophy and rationalism

At 10:59 in the evening, when the senses are dulled, they draw the numbers live from Tallahassee. But what can be known with certainty? That the machine spins, that the balls are marked - these are clear and distinct facts. The rest is a distribution of chance, which I would not trust before a proof. I would rather hold that the sum of gain is less than the sum of industry, for fortune is a variable, but reason is a constant.

Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli 1469–1527 · Political thinker of power and pragmatic statecraft

A prince who waits on fortune is a fool; the wise man attends to the means by which fortune is seized. This drawing - a spectacle of chance - is a distraction. The real power lies in those who control the stage, the hour, the very rules of the game. If you would be lucky, do not watch the balls; arrange the wheel.

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare 1564–1616 · England's greatest playwright and poet

Fortune's wheel spins, and we poor players clutch at its rims, hoping to catch the prize before the downward turn. This very hour, ten-score thousand souls watch a box of tumbling orbs, as if the Fates themselves had written their doom upon those spheres. But what is a purse of gold when the soul is empty? A painted ship upon a painted ocean, I say. Yet the lottery of life is this: to love, to lose, to laugh at the turns of chance - and still to play the scene with grace.

Homer
Homer c. 8th century BC · Poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey

As when fair-haired Hermes flings his golden wand to send a mortal’s dream to the threshold of sleep, so do these folk await the tumbling spheres to decide their fate. But know that the gods laugh at such wagers: one man will grasp the prize and be ruined by his own greed, another will lose his last obol and be saved. The Fates spin their own thread, and no lottery can untangle the design. Better to be a beggar with a clear conscience than a rich man haunted by the Furies.

Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri c. 1265–1321 · Poet of the Divine Comedy and father of Italian

As the evening bell tolls and the lamps are lit, the great wheel of Fortune turns once more, spinning its painted spheres as if the heavens themselves were casting lots. And what does the crowd below see? A promise of gold without toil, a shortcut that bypasses the ascent of the mountain and the flames of purification. I tell you, such a gift is a counterfeit of grace - for the true treasure is earned through the pilgrim's labor, not plucked from a tumbler as the demon of avarice grins in the shadow. Beware the lottery that pays you in dust while it drains your soul.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832 · German literary titan who wrote Faust

A drawing every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday - three times a week the wheel of fortune spins, and the crowd gapes at the falling spheres as if they held the secret of life. But I say the true lottery is the one played daily with one's own potential: the gamble of striving, the wager that effort will transfigure the ordinary. What matter the white balls and the red? The richest prize is the moment when a soul, having dared to grow, recognizes its own reflection in the ever-moving stream of becoming.

Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes 1547–1616 · Author of Don Quixote, father of the modern novel

A drawing of numbered balls, broadcast from a far land, and men gather before their hearths to learn if fortune has kissed them. My knight would see in this a joust against fate itself, while his squire would remind him that the odds are as grim as a windmill's blades. Yet I say: let them dream, for the dream is the true prize, and the coin spent on folly buys a moment of hope more precious than any jackpot.

Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy 1828–1910 · Russian novelist of War and Peace and moral searching

I have seen men ruin their souls over such numbers, mistaking a fleeting chance for the meaning of life. Yet the true question is not who wins the gold, but what you would do with it - for wealth without love is but a heavier chain. I would have you ask instead: how shall I live today, in service to my neighbor? That is a lottery where every ticket is a winner, and the prize is peace.

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821–1881 · Russian novelist of faith, guilt, and the soul

They gather at the hour of eleven, in the glow of the studio, to watch six white spheres fall like the dice of a fevered dream. And in every face I see the abyss: the craving for wealth that will not save the soul, the scratch of the ticket like a confession. But even this lottery, my friend, is a parable - for the soul that wins all and loses itself is poorer than the beggar who keeps his faith. I would watch that drawing and weep for the hunger it reveals.

Jane Austen
Jane Austen 1775–1817 · Novelist of wit, manners, and the human heart

A live drawing of numbered spheres - how like a ball in which fortune, not a partner, leads the dance. One may sit and wish upon the hour, but the prudent heart knows that chance favors not the eager but the prepared. I would sooner trust a sensible match made on judgment than a prize won by a turn of chance, though I confess the spectacle of hope on the faces of the crowd has its own amusement.

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens 1812–1870 · Novelist who dramatized Victorian society's ills

‘Tis a strange lottery of fate, indeed - that men should stake their groats on the turn of a painted ball, while the poor starve in the streets for want of a crust. I have seen such gamblers in my youth, their eyes alight with false hope, as if the turn of a wheel could mend the broken ledger of their lives. But the true drawing, the one that matters, is the daily reckoning of our own deeds - whether we have fed the hungry, sheltered the orphan, and paid our debts of kindness. Mark me, the only certain number is the one that measures a man’s compassion, and that drawing is never delayed.

Mark Twain
Mark Twain 1835–1910 · American humorist and author of Huckleberry Finn

I’ve heard of men who sold their souls for a mess of pottage, but this here Powerball - why, it’s selling your conscience for a chance at a numbered ball, and the devil’s the one holding the drum. I knew a fellow once who won a fortune and lost his peace of mind, for he spent the rest of his days dreading the tax collector and the relatives who came calling. The only sure bet in this world is that the house always wins, and the house is the one selling you the ticket. Draw your balls if you must, but remember: the lottery’s a tax on people who can’t do arithmetic, and I’d rather be a poor fool than a rich one who’s been fooled.

Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway 1899–1961 · Novelist of spare prose and stoic courage

A man plays the numbers, but the numbers don’t play back. I’ve seen a man hold a ticket in his hand, thinking it held a fortune, when it held only the shape of his own need. In Spain, I saw men bet their lives on a bull’s turn, and some won, and some died, and the luck meant nothing in the end. A drawing is just a drawing - the balls fall, and you count them, and then you wake up and go to work. The real game is how you face the morning after, with your hands steady and your gut tight, and that’s a thing no lottery can give you.

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519 · Renaissance polymath, painter of the Mona Lisa

These numbered balls, tossed by air currents in a sealed vessel - observe how their motion obeys the laws of physics, yet the outcome defies prediction. The eye sees chaos, but the mind discerns a hidden order. I would study the mechanism: the weight of each sphere, the force of the blower, the subtle revolutions that make each draw unique. But more than the prize, I marvel at the human heart's hunger for fortune, so like a river ever seeking the sea - never satisfied, yet ever moving.

Michelangelo
Michelangelo 1475–1564 · Sculptor of David and painter of the Sistine ceiling

They stand before a screen as if it were the Sistine ceiling, yet see only the glint of gold, not the glory of the divine. I chiseled David from a flawed block of marble, liberating the form God had hidden within; these folk wait for a machine to spit out a number, as though fortune could be carved from chance. There is more beauty in a single chisel stroke than in all the treasure of a thousand drawings. Let them seek the hidden sculpture in their own souls, not the hollow sphere of luck.

Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh 1853–1890 · Post-Impressionist painter of vivid, emotional beauty

Ah, the little white balls tumbling in their glass cage - they are like stars that have fallen from the night sky into a mortal's hands! I see the faces of the watchers, lit not by the lamp but by a fierce hunger in their eyes, a longing for the sun they think can be bought. But the true sun, the yellow blaze that I chase on my canvas, cannot be seized by chance; it must be loved and wrestled with, stroke by stroke, under the blazing noon. Let them keep their numbered spheres - I will paint the wheat field and call it my jackpot.

Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 · Co-founder of Cubism and titan of modern art

Every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday - why so few? The balls tumble like a blind man's dice, and the public prays to a machine for a number. But I tell you: the real art is in the waiting, in the tension between the sphere and the slot, in the pause where anything could be born. A painting is not the canvas; it is the interval between two strokes. The Powerball is merely a clock ticking toward a cliché. Give me the chaos before the draw, the infinite possibility - that is the masterpiece nobody sees.

Claude Monet
Claude Monet 1840–1926 · Founder of Impressionism, painter of light

Ah, the fleeting instant when the numbered spheres tumble into view - each one a droplet of light caught in the canvas of the hour. For a breath, the world holds its gaze, and that shimmer, that trembling expectation, is the true subject. I would paint not the numbers, but the glow upon the watchers' faces, the orange haze of the studio lamps, the quick pulse of hope before it settles into stillness.

Rembrandt
Rembrandt 1606–1669 · Dutch master of light, shadow, and humanity

Six numbered globes, each a tronie of fortune, and the crowd holds its breath as the boy in the booth turns the crank. I would paint the faces in that room - the widow gripping her ticket, the clerk with the ledger - not the gleaming spheres, but the hope and dread that flicker across them like candlelight on a wrinkled brow. The numbers fall, and for one heartbeat, every soul is a saint awaiting judgment.

Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo 1907–1954 · Mexican painter of pain, identity, and self

They spin those balls three times a week, and the whole world looks at the numbers like a mirror - but I look at my own face, with its thorns and its ribbons. I do not need a jackpot; I am already the prize, painted in pain and fire. That drawing in Tallahassee is a show for the hungry, but I would rather hang my heart on a canvas than gamble it on a white sphere, for my wounds are my lottery, and I have already won.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756–1791 · Prodigy composer of the Classical era

A concert of chance! Each ball a note in a capricious sonata, tumbling in a crescendo of possibility. With what allegro the crowd holds its breath, awaiting the final chord! Yet, for all its thrill, this lottery is but a simple theme - the real symphony lies in how we compose our lives with fortune's random notes. If I won such a prize, I'd buy my freedom from patrons and write a thousand arias to fortune's whimsy! But for those who play, let them dance with joy, for even a lost draw is a playful interlude.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 · Composer who bridged Classical and Romantic music

A lottery! As if fate could be measured in numbered spheres, when true destiny is written in the thunder of a symphony. I have wrestled with deafness, with despair, and with the silence of the world, yet I shaped that silence into the Ode to Joy. These folk wait for a ball to fall, hoping to buy what only struggle can achieve. Let them listen to the music within, for no fortune can compose the hero’s song that each soul must write with its own blood.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 · Baroque master of counterpoint and sacred music

This drawing strikes me as a sort of earthly fugue: each sphere is a voice, and the order in which they are drawn is a theme that the unseen Maestro has composed. Yet how transient is that melody! It is a single note of chance, not the sustained harmony of a cantata that unfolds through measure and counterpoint toward a sacred end. I cannot set my soul to such a passing sound, for my music must have a fixed basso continuo - the steady purpose of God's glory - not a roll of dice. Let the crowd gamble on their fleeting tones; I will write for the eternal organ.

Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley 1935–1977 · The King of Rock and Roll

Well, bless your heart for asking about the draw times - it's Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, right around 11 o'clock at night, from Tallahassee way. You know, I remember standing in a tiny studio in Memphis, sweatin' under the lights, wonderin' if anybody'd ever hear my songs. That Powerball machine just tumbles and tumbles, like the rhythm of a good gospel choir, and folks hold their breath hopin' their number comes up. But the real gold ain't in the jackpot - it's in the way a tune can make a stranger feel they're home.

Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson 1958–2009 · The King of Pop and global entertainment icon

You know, the whole world stops for a moment - just like a beat in a song - and everyone's heart is turned to the same rhythm. It's like a dance where we're all hoping for the same step. I think it's beautiful, that shared breath, that moment when a stranger's dream could become your dream. If only we could hold that feeling forever, like a melody that never fades.

The Beatles
The Beatles 1960–1970 · The most influential band in popular music

Blimey, three times a week they spin those balls and the whole world stops for a bit of chance. We'd rather spin a record - 'All You Need Is Love' still plays every Saturday, and that's a cert you can bank on. But if you're asking about the draw, mate, it's live from Tallahassee, down in Florida, where the oranges grow and the numbers pop out like a chorus. Just remember, the real jackpot's in the harmonies.

Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan 1941– · Songwriter who made popular music poetry

Somewhere in a studio of white light and numbered spheres, chance itself puts on a show - a ritual of orange balls and spinning glass that promises fortune to the lucky and a song to the rest. You ask which drawing is live, but the real question is what you'd do if the numbers turned in your favor. The lottery's just a mirror; it shows you what you're willing to hope for, and that's a tune you'll be humming long after the balls stop rolling.

Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift 1989– · Record-breaking singer-songwriter and global star

There's something so honest about a live drawing - no edits, no retakes, just a moment where the whole world holds its breath together. It reminds me of the nights I've spent waiting for a call that could change everything, and the way hope can light up a room when you least expect it. Whether or not your numbers come up, there's magic in the ritual of showing up, and that's a story worth telling.

Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus 1451–1506 · Explorer whose voyages linked Europe and the Americas

These numbered spheres spin like the stars that guided me westward, and they promise fortune as I promised my sovereigns a route to the Indies! But mark me - the greatest prize is not gold, but the discovery of new worlds and the spread of the true faith. I sailed into the unknown, trusting my charts and the hand of Providence, and I found land where others saw only sea. Let others gamble on trivial numbers; I stake my all on voyages that change the map of the earth!

Marco Polo
Marco Polo 1254–1324 · Venetian traveler who chronicled the Silk Road

In the realm of the Great Khan, I saw men wager on the flight of cranes and the fall of dice, but never have I seen a land where the people gather by the thousand to watch a machine spit out numbers, as if the fates of Cathay could be decided by a spinning globe. I have crossed deserts where the stars themselves were the only lottery, and I tell you: the true riches lie not in the prize, but in the journey that brings you to a new horizon. Yet I confess, were I in that hall in Tallahassee, I would buy a ticket, if only to see the marvel of it.

Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan c. 1480–1521 · Navigator of the first voyage around the world

A nightly throw of the dice from a faraway coast - so it seems, yet there is no true compass in that glass globe. I have sailed the strait that bears my name, where the seas rage and the stars themselves are hidden, and I knew that only by fixing my eye on the pole star and holding my course could I reach the Spice Islands. These men wait for the turning of a ball as if it were a fair wind, but fortune favors the bold and the persistent, not the idle watchers. Let them cast their lots; I will chart my path by the heavens and the deep.

Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong 1930–2012 · First human to walk on the Moon

The drawing is live at 10:59 pm ET from Tallahassee, streamed on the website - a precise, repeatable procedure, much like a prelaunch countdown. Back in '69, we didn't have a backup plan if the computer hiccuped; we had checklists and a team that rehearsed every contingency. A lottery is a different kind of risk - entirely random, no engineering to tame it. But I'd note that the real challenge isn't watching the balls fall; it's deciding what you'd do if they fell your way.

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart 1897–1937 (disappeared) · Pioneering aviator who vanished over the Pacific

Somewhere over the Pacific, the stars were my map, and every flight was a gamble against the sky. So I say: let them watch those numbers fall - it's a gamble, yes, but what a thrill to chase the unknown! The odds may be long, but so were mine when I flew where no one had gone. Don't just watch - dream, plan, and if that ticket calls to you, take the leap. Fear is a cage; hope is the open sky.

Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin 1934–1968 · First human to journey into outer space

From up there, the Earth was a blue marble, and I thought, 'What a lottery we live on, all of us together in this one craft.' They spin those numbers in Florida at 10:59 of the evening, three times each week - a small countdown to fortune. But I tell you, the greatest prize is not in the drawing: it is the view of our little world, and the chance to work for it, side by side, in peace.

Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs 1955–2011 · Apple co-founder who reshaped personal technology

A lottery? You might as well toss a coin to decide your life's work. The real prize isn't a pot of money - it's the courage to make something that changes the way people think. I never chased fortune; I chased excellence, and the fortune followed. Focus. Simplicity. Say no to a thousand things so you can say yes to the one that matters. If you want a thrill, build something. Don't waste your hours on a random draw - channel that passion into your life's product.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk 1971– · Entrepreneur behind Tesla, SpaceX, and more

A live drawing of random numbers is a fascinating exercise in probability, but it's a distraction from the real lottery - humanity's survival as a multiplanetary species. The odds of winning this jackpot are astronomically smaller than the odds of an asteroid wiping us out if we don't get off this rock. We should be streaming rocket launches, not ball drawings. If we're going to gamble, let's bet on making life interplanetary, not on a pile of cash that will be worthless if we're extinct.

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey 1954– · Media mogul and the queen of talk television

You know, when I look at that little machine with the bouncing balls, I see so much more than numbers. I see hope - hope that someone out there is about to get a second chance, a jumpstart, a reason to believe that the universe is on their side. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Not the money - though honey, let's be real, money helps - but the feeling that today could be the day everything changes. So I say, watch it with your heart wide open, and remember that the real jackpot was always the life you build along the way. Now, who's ready to dream big?

Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali 1942–2016 · Boxing legend and outspoken social conscience

They draw on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday - three nights a week, the balls float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! But I'm tellin' you, the only draw that matters is the one in your own corner: when you stand up for what's right, even if the whole world says no. I've been in the ring with the draft board, with the judges, with the heavyweights of hate, and I never needed a lucky number - I had faith, and I had my own two fists. The Powerball can make you rich, but it can't make you free.

Pelé
Pelé 1940–2022 · Football legend and three-time World Cup winner

Ah, this drawing is like the final whistle of a match - everyone holds their breath, waiting for the result. I played in front of kings and millions, but the greatest goal was always the one that made a child smile. So whether you win or lose, remember: the real treasure is the joy of playing, the hope in your heart. Life is like football - you must play with love, and the score will take care of itself.

Walt Disney
Walt Disney 1901–1966 · Animation pioneer who built a entertainment empire

A live drawing every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday - why, that's a show in itself, a little drama of hope they've staged in Tallahassee! I'd put a band on that set, a host with a twinkle, maybe a castle in the background, because even a lottery should feel like a story you're glad to watch. Those balls tumbling are like the reels of a film - each one holds a promise, and the magic is in the waiting. Now that's entertainment with a spark!

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