Two lucky ticket holders in Missouri and Texas won the massive $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot after Saturday's drawing, lottery officials announced Sunday.

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Two lucky ticket holders in Missouri and Texas won the massive $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot after Saturday's drawing, lottery officials announced Sunday.

The winning numbers from Saturday's drawing were white balls 11, 23, 44, 61, 62, and red Powerball 17 with a Power Play multiplier of 2, the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a statement.

It was the second-largest prize since the game began in 1992 and will be split by the two ticket holders. The largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever was the world-record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in California on Nov. 7, 2022.

"Congratulations to our newest Powerball jackpot winners and the Missouri Lottery and Texas Lottery for selling the winning tickets," said Matt Strawn, Powerball Product Group Chair and chief executive of the Iowa Lottery.

Nearly 10 million other players won smaller prizes after Saturday's drawing, including 18 winners of the $1 million prize for matching all five white balls with two of those increasing their winnings to $2 million by selecting the Power Play add-on.

The Saturday Powerball pull was the 42nd drawing since the most recent jackpot was won in California in May, ending the longest run in the game's history without a jackpot winner. Now, the Powerball jackpot resets down to a $20 million prize.

The overall odds of winning a prize remain 1 in 24.9. The odds of winning the jackpot remain 1 in 292.2 million.

Funds raised from lotteries like Powerball often go toward state education departments for funding programs like the arts or to vocational programs and responsible gambling initiatives.

But Powerball is not without its critics who have raised concerns about gambling addiction or criticized lotteries, including Powerball, for disproportionately burden lower-income and minority communities while essentially functioning as a regressive form of taxation.