The winner of the $1.82 billion Powerball jackpot drawn on Christmas Eve will need to wait five days before being able to claim the prize.

The delay is due to the extended holiday closure of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s claims center, which will not reopen until Monday, five days after the drawing. Once reopened, the winner will have 180 days to formally claim the prize.

A separate quirk of Arkansas state law allows lottery winners of prizes $500,000 or more to keep their identities private for three years after claiming their winnings, meaning the winner’s name is unlikely to become public until late 2028.

The winning ticket, the second-largest Powerball jackpot on record, was sold at a Murphy USA gas station in Cabot, Arkansas, lottery officials said. 

It marked only the second time Arkansas has produced a Powerball jackpot winner, the first occurring in 2010.

The jackpot may be taken as $1.82 billion paid over 29 years, or as a one-time lump sum of $834.9 million before taxes.

The winning numbers were 4, 25, 31, 52, and 59, with Powerball 19.

The drawing was initially advertised at $1.7 billion, but increased after final ticket sales were tallied.

The odds of winning remained a daunting 1 in 292.2 million. Powerball tickets cost $2 each.

The Powerball winner must wait to claim the prize as Arkansas law and a holiday closure slow the process

The Powerball's top prize jumped over $1.8billion before the drawing as players rushed to grab the game's record-breaking tickets

While the headline figure is eye-catching, winners typically take home hundreds of millions of dollars less than the advertised jackpot. 

A significant portion of the prize goes toward taxes, and the final payout depends on whether the winner selects the annuity or the lump-sum option.

That is because the jackpot figure reflects what the prize would be worth if the pool were invested in Treasury bonds over 30 years, which is why higher interest rates have pushed the advertised total higher in recent years. 

Choosing the annuity provides one upfront payment followed by 29 annual installments that increase by 5 percent each year.

Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with final payouts varying widely depending on local tax laws. 

Winners in California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming do not pay state taxes on jackpot winnings. 

Meanwhile, winners in Maryland, New York, Oregon, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. face state tax rates above 8 percent.