Have you wondered why people keep playing the lottery? Just imagine, you spend several dollars to get a chance to win billion-prize or million-prize. Will you test your luck?
Lottery is an available betting style in almost every country around the world. Traditional lottery and online lottery are well received by players. The value of the prize is the main factor that attracts many people to participate in this kind of game of chance. Traditional lottery is safe. But for the online lottery form, the lotto is still quite cumbersome for new players. Winning the rules and getting the house to win is not easy. You need more flexibility in your bets.
The KUBET dealer provides online lottery service for everyone. Both play soccer betting and online lotto with the same online betting account.
So what about the above question? Some say yes, some say no, but after seeing the list of the biggest US lottery prizes as we mention below, surely you will say yes.
1# 1.586 billion dollars
This lottery prize of 1.586 dollars drew on January 13th, 2016. Until now, it has been the biggest lottery prize in United States history. So one day, you buy some tickets and after that, you become a billionaire. Are you excited?
The winners of this billion prize include John and Lisa Robinson (from Tennessee), Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt (from Florida) and Marvin and Mae Acosta (from California). These lucky people split the full prize of 1.568 billion dollars so each of them received approximately 533 million dollars (before taxes) if it is an annuity (or 327.8 million dollars as the single payment).
According to NBC’s TODAY show, the lottery prize of the Robinsons came from one of the four tickets that they bought in a local grocery store. They, after considering, decided to take the lump sum payment of 327.8 million dollars. The reason, according to John, is that “We’re not guaranteed tomorrow”.
Smith and Kalschmidt from Florida also chose the option of a lump-sum payment. Answer NBC, they told that they wanted to get massages, enhance their current truck and then retire with the vast wealth.
The California-based Marvin and Mae Acosta did not appear publicly for months after their winning. The only statement is that they are thankful for the rare gift.
2# 1.537 billion dollars
Placing second in the list of biggest lottery prizes in the United States is the 1.537-billion-prize from South Carolina. The winners decided not to come out to prevent potential troubles and dangers that might arise. South Carolina is one of the states that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. As they are anonymous, rare information about them is revealed. All that people know is that the winner decided to choose the cash option for their money prize. So, the lump sum payment they receive would be roughly 878 million dollars.
For this huge lottery prize, the total haul of this Mega Millions prize is 491.7 million dollars, after deducting federal and state taxes. The income tax paid to South Carolina is 7% of the total prize, while the federal income tax rate is 37%). Besides, the winners also have to pay some other taxes.
3# 768.4 million dollars
This is the third biggest US lottery prize, but there is no one coming to claim the prize. The winning ticket was purchased in New Berlin, Wisconsin. This small city has not allowed lottery winners to remain anonymous, so within 180 days, the winners have to claim their prize publicly in 180 days from the day of announcing the winning ticket.
4# 758.7 million dollars
This lottery prize of 758.7 million dollars belongs to Mavis L. Wanczyk, a woman in Chicopee, Massachusetts. She won the Powerball jackpot in August of 2017. This woman decided to take the lump sum payment of 480.5 million dollars.
Mavis Wanczyk had been working in the Mercy Medical Center for 32 years. The very first thing she did after winning this Powerball prize was quitting her current job. She called the center and told them that she would never come back.
5# 687.8 million dollars
About one week after the Mega Millions jackpot of 1.54 billion dollars, the United States witnessed another big lottery prize of 687.8 million dollars. The two prizes which came in a row seemed to give hope to many Americans, even though it was just nearly half of the previous prize. This Powerball jackpot of nearly 700 million dollars belonged to a pair of winners coming from Iowa and New York in October 2018.
The winner from Iowa is a grandmother named Lerynne West. This 58-year-old woman chose the lump sum payment, which was approximately 198 million dollars. Before claiming the prize, she almost lost her lucky ticket. But, fortunately, she finally found it. She appeared on Ellen show and made an amazing announcement of donating 500,000 dollars to the veterans non-profit The Travis Mills Foundation.
The other winner came from New York. Robert Bailey was a retired postal worker, buying his lucky lottery ticket in Harlem. He also took the full payment instead of the annuity and told that he would play every week for nearly 25 years.
If you win a lottery prize, pay attention to taxes
You might see that the amount of millions of dollars or billion dollars is extremely astonishing. However, there is one thing that you might not notice: taxes on winning tickets. The winning money is considered an income, thus, paying the income tax is a must. As income tax in most countries is the progressive tax, the more money you receive, the more tax you pay. Of course, even after taxes, there is a lot left over, but before enjoying your money, you need to pay tax first. Some people do not know about it when they win the Power Ball jackpot. They spend all of their money without thinking about taxes paid to both state and federal and end up working several jobs to pay the tax.
Lottery winnings are taxed in both the federal and state level. Depending on the amount you receive, the tax rate could reach 37%. For instance, if you win a Power Ball jackpot of 1 billion dollars, you might have to pay the tax of 370 million dollars, which will be troublesome if you have spent all of your money. The state and local taxes are different from each other. In some states, there are no income taxes imposed while in other states, the taxes rate could rise to 15%. So if you have to pay a 15% local tax rate and 37% federal tax rate, the total tax rate you have to pay is 52%. This concept of winning tax rate still is controversial. You can do nothing but accept it.
Even after paying a high income tax rate, the winning money remained still big. Do you want to be a lucky man who becomes a millionaire after one night? Do you want to test your luck?
