Along with Mega Millions, the Powerball is considered the most rewarding jackpot in the United States. Last month, it reconfirmed its reputation, as we saw another impressive prize of nearly $700 million according to Foxbonus.com. From what we know so far, the winner is a California resident.
According to the reports, a single ticket was sold in Golden State and it matched all six numbers, for one of the highest prizes in the history of the U.S. jackpot. Still, it didn’t break the record that was set five years ago, when three winners shared an incredible 1.6-billion jackpot in January 2016. This is the seventh highest prize in history. It’s also worth noting that a 1-billion Mega Millions jackpot was hit in January this year.
As we’ve just mentioned, the jackpot is slightly under $700 million. The exact sum is 669.8 million dollars but what’s important to mention is that this isn’t the amount of money that winner is about to get. First of all, the winner has a choice to take the prize as a total sum or to receive annual installments in the next 30 years. In the case of annual payments, a winner gets the full prize but if he wants the full sum at once, the actual prize is lower. It is usually two-thirds of the prize, which would be slightly under $500 million in this case.
Also, keep in mind that the amount will be reduced by 24% for federal taxes. In this case, that would be around $120 million, which means that the winner would get around $380 million. Furthermore, there is also the top marginal income rate, which will also lower the prize significantly. The good news is that the winner is from California, as this country doesn’t tax lottery winnings, usually.
In any case, the winner will probably have to contact a lawyer, tax advisor, financial advisor and other experts to manage all this. Another interesting thing is that California does not allow winners to remain anonymous.
Biggest Jackpots in History
As we’ve just mentioned, this is the seventh-highest jackpot in history, so we should mention higher prizes in this article as well.
The sixth place was also recorded this year, in January. A player from Maryland won $731.1 million on Powerball.
The fifth best result was recorded four years ago, in August 2017, when a player from Massachusetts won a prize of $758.7 million. Once again, it was a Powerball jackpot.
The fourth place belongs to Powerball too. More precisely, it belongs to a player from Wisconsin, who won $768.4 million. This was two years ago, on March 27, 2019.
The third highest prize was recorded early this year, on January 22. This time, it’s about the Mega Millions jackpot, which was won by a player from Michigan. The total prize was $1.05 billion.
The second place also belongs to Mega Millions. A player from South Carolina won $1.537 billion three years ago. This is also the highest jackpot won by a single player.
The first place belongs to the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot from January 13, 2016. Interestingly, this jackpot was split between three winners. The winners were from California, Florida and Tennessee.
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