WASHINGTON — Two tickets, one in Missouri and the other in Texas, have won the second-largest prize in Powerball history, and will split the $1.787 billion prize. 

But we may never know who those tickets belong to. 

They were bought in two of the states that grant anonymity to lottery winners, meaning it’s likely the winners won’t reveal their names. 

Missouri allows any lottery winner to stay anonymous, while Texas allows winners to stay anonymous if they win over $1 million. 

The winners in Missouri and Texas could also choose to take part of the cash payout, valued at approximately $826.4 million. 

Either way, their prize is the second-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. The only prize larger was the $2.04 billion jackpot won in November 2022.

The jackpot for Saturday’s drawing was initially set at $1.7 billion, but game leaders increased the estimate Friday morning due to an influx in ticket purchases. 

There have been 42 drawings without a big winner since May.

This lottery streak has produced “101 winning tickets worth $1 million or more, and more than a thousand winning tickets worth $50,000 or more,” Powerball said.

The winning ticket in Texas was sold at a gas station-convenience store in Fredericksburg, according to the Texas Lottery.

It’s unclear where the Missouri ticket was sold. 

Usually, state lotteries reward the store that sold the winning ticket with a cash prize, sometimes as high as $1 million. 

Texas law says that any lottery winner with a prize over $1 million may maintain their anonymity when coming forward to claim the prize. 

In Missouri, the law is even stricter. If you win the lottery, state officials are prohibited from publishing your name. 

States are fairly split on whether to allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. A count by USA Today shows 19 states where lottery winners may maintain their anonymity, at least partially. 

The rest of the U.S. requires them to come forward publicly, usually sometime within a year after winning the jackpot. 

Officials say public winners promote trust in lottery games like the Mega Millions contest because they put faces and names to the winners, allowing other players to know for sure that a real winner has been selected. 

While the winner can remain anonymous to the public, they’ll need to provide proper identification so the state can process the claim and report the winnings to the IRS. 

A lottery win can catapult the ticketholder into a completely new tax bracket, and most financial professionals suggest holding off on claiming the ticket until securing at least one financial advisor to walk them through the process of claiming the money and making sure it doesn’t disappear. 

But if they’re smart, the winners will likely take some time to plan before coming forward. Part of the reason lotteries give up to a year to claim large prizes is that the extra time gives people who have just come into an unfathomable amount of money a chance to meet with experts who can walk them through the process. 

“So by far, the biggest misconception that we hear or read and see is, is that the money seems to be infinite when it certainly is not,” wealth advisor Shean Fletcher previously told the Associated Press, adding that winners should meet with financial advisers, lawyers and certified public accountants to make a plan.

There are hefty taxes to deal with, regardless of whether the winner takes the lump sum payout or the month-to-month annuity option, so the winner will need a good accountant. 

The initial tax bills aren’t the only reason financial experts warn lottery winners to take it slow — you shouldn’t buy a pricey home without a good idea of recurring taxes and upkeep, for example. 

A good financial advisor will help a winner avoid spending outside their means (even if those means have increased exponentially overnight) and a lawyer can help stop possible lawsuits from those looking to take their own cut of the earnings.