More than $2.2 billion in multi-state jackpots can be won this week
By Todd Northrop
This will be a week talked about in the lottery industry for a long time.
Lottery players are dreaming about unimaginable wealth, lottery retailers are enjoying the prosperity of a huge uptick in store traffic, and state governments are rubbing their hands in anticipation of a revenue windfall.
Everyone knows about the record $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot that is being talked about around the world. But in its shadow the USA's other big multi-state game, Powerball, has been racking up huge increases, and is now simultaneously among the richest lottery jackpots of all time.
The combination of the two games, with drawings set for Tuesday and Wednesday, offers more than $2.2 billion in lottery jackpots that anyone can try their luck at for as little as $2 per game.
Last night, after nobody won the $476.7 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials raised the estimate for the Wednesday drawing to $620 million — the 6th-largest lottery jackpot of all time. It is only the 6th time in history that a lottery jackpot has risen to more than $600 million.
The lump-sum cash value of the jackpot is just as eye-popping: $354.3 million. And likely to grow even bigger before Wednesday.
(See the top 25 United States annuity and cash value jackpots below.)
Of course, the big winner (or winners) will have to pay taxes on their prize, so USA Mega has a handy Powerball Jackpot Analysis page available to calculate the federal and state taxes that would be withheld upon the award of your nice big jackpot. A Mega Millions Jackpot Analysis is also available.
Players looking for a nearby lottery retailer — or that out-of-the-way retailer with a smaller line — are encouraged to use Lottery Places, an app for iOS, Android, and Windows that can locate the nearest lottery retailers in every jurisdiction that sells Powerball and Mega Millions. The helpful app can locate lottery stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, much of Canada, and the Caribbean.
Michigan lottery players can bypass the store completely and buy their Powerball lottery tickets online. (They can also buy Mega Millions lottery tickets online.)
Players outside the USA can use a reputable butler service, which provides scanned copies of the purchased lottery tickets securely held on behalf of the customer. In the past, the lottery ticket service was used by people out side the USA to win big jackpots in Oregon and Florida.
Whatever you do, don't wait. Lottery officials stress the importance of not waiting until the last minute to buy lottery tickets for either of these historic jackpots.
Wednesday's mammoth Powerball jackpot is the result of 20 consecutive draws without a winner. The run-up started as a $40 million prize on Aug. 15.
The winning numbers for Saturday, October 20, 2018 were 16, 54, 57, 62, and 69, with Powerball number 23. The Power Play number was 2.
Even though nobody won the jackpot Saturday, 9 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Arizona, 1 from Connecticut, 1 from Florida, 1 from Indiana, 1 from Michigan, 1 from Missouri, 1 from New Jersey, 1 from Tennessee, and 1 from Washington.
Two of the second-prize winners purchased the Power Play option — the tickets sold in Florida and Tennessee. Because those tickets were purchased with the Power Play option their second-prize wins are automatically doubled to $2 million. Power Play is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered in Power Play is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.
104 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $50,000. Of those tickets, 17 were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $100,000, and 13 of the tickets were sold in California, where the prize was worth $17,044 this drawing.
Following the Saturday drawing, the Powerball annuity jackpot estimate was raised a whopping $143.3 million from its previous amount of $476.7 million and the cash value was raised by $81.9 million from its previous amount of $272.4 million.
The next Powerball drawing will take place Wednesday night at 10:59 pm Eastern Time.
When a Powerball ticket is purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket, any non-jackpot prize is increased according to a fixed prize schedule, which can be found on the Powerball Drawing Detail page at USA Mega, as well as on the Powerball Prize Payouts page at Lottery Post.
Powerball is played in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
Wednesday's Powerball jackpot currently stands as the 6th-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States, and the 6th-largest Powerball jackpot ever. The frenzy of lottery ticket sales this week will almost certainly push the jackpot estimate higher by draw time.
- Mega Millions: $1.6 billion, Oct. 23, 2018 - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $1.5864 billion, Jan. 13, 2016 - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Powerball: $758.7 million, Aug. 23, 2017 - Massachusetts
- Mega Millions: $656 million, Mar. 30, 2012 - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Mega Millions: $636 million, Dec. 17, 2013 - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $620 million, Oct. 24, 2007 - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $590.5 million, May 18, 2013 - Florida
- Powerball: $587.5 million, Nov. 28, 2012 - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $564.1 million, Feb. 11, 2015 - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Powerball: $559.7 million, Jan. 6, 2018 - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $543 million, Jul. 24, 2018 - California
- Mega Millions: $536 million, Jul. 8, 2016 - Indiana
- Mega Millions: $533 million, Mar. 30, 2018 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $487 million, Jul. 30, 2016 - New Hampshire
- Powerball: $456.7 million, Mar. 17, 2018 - Pennsylvania
- Mega Millions: $451 million, Jan. 5, 2018 - Florida
- Powerball: $448.4 million, Aug. 7, 2013 - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $447.8 million, Jun. 10, 2017 - California
- Powerball: $435.3 million, Feb. 22, 2017 - Indiana
- Powerball: $429.6 million, May 7, 2016 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $425.3 million, Feb. 19, 2014 - California
- Powerball: $420.9 million, Nov. 26, 2016 - Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $414 million, Mar. 18, 2014 - Florida, Maryland
- Powerball: $399.4 million, Sep. 18, 2013 - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $393 million, Aug. 11, 2017 - Illinois
For those keeping score, the number of jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 15
- Mega Millions: 10
Top 25 cash value jackpots
Since many lottery winners collect their winnings in cash, the lump-sum payout is an important measure of what a winning ticket could be worth.
Looking at the cash value, the upcoming Powerball jackpot ranks as the 9th-largest cash value in world history.
- Powerball: $983.5 million cash, Jan. 13, 2016 ($1.5864 billion annuity) - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $904.9 million cash, Oct. 23, 2018 ($1.6 billion annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $480.5 million cash, Aug. 23, 2017 ($758.7 million annuity) - Massachusetts
- Mega Millions: $471 million cash, Mar. 30, 2012 ($656 million annuity) - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Powerball: $384.7 million cash, Nov. 28, 2012 ($587.5 million annuity) - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $381.1 million cash, Feb. 11, 2015 ($564.1 million annuity) - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Mega Millions: $378 million cash, Jul. 8, 2016 ($536 million annuity) - Indiana
- Powerball: $370.9 million cash, May 18, 2013 ($590.5 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $354.3 million cash, Oct. 24, 2018 ($620 million annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $352 million cash, Jan. 6, 2018 ($559.7 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($636 million annuity) - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $336.8 million cash, Jul. 30, 2016 ($487 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $324 million cash, Mar. 30, 2018 ($533 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $320.5 million cash, Jul. 24, 2018 ($543 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $284 million cash, May 7, 2016 ($429.6 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $281.9 million cash, Jan. 5, 2018 ($451 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $279.1 million cash, Jun. 10, 2017 ($447.8 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $273.9 million cash, Mar. 17, 2018 ($456.7 million annuity) - Pennsylvania
- Powerball: $263.5 million cash, Feb. 22, 2017 ($435.3 million annuity) - Indiana
- Powerball: $258.2 million cash, Aug. 7, 2013 ($448.4 million annuity) - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $254.7 million cash, Nov. 26, 2016 ($420.9 million annuity) - Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $246.5 million cash, Aug. 11, 2017 ($393 million annuity) - Illinois
- Mega Millions: $240 million cash, Jan. 4, 2011 ($380 million annuity) - Idaho, Washington
- Mega Millions: $233.1 million cash, Mar. 6, 2007 ($390 million annuity) - Georgia, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $230.9 million cash, Mar. 18, 2014 ($414 million annuity) - Florida, Maryland
The number of jackpot cash values in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 14
- Mega Millions: 11
That's enough money to live off just the interest and be able to pass it down for generations to come. There are so many ways to use the money and grow your fortune too. I can't wait to see what is done with it.
Why is the jackpot bigger on some of the jackpots and yet the cash payouts are smaller than other payouts?
The true "jackpot" is the actual cash that is in the "pot" (the cash value, or CV), and the "Jackpot" figure that they advertise is the "annuity", the CV plus the interest that cash would earn over the 29 year annuity. If you choose the annuity (not the cash option) they would invest the CV for you in low interest, but very safe, government bonds, and they would send you a check every year.
Saylorgirl: Won $8 on your Powerball last night. Good luck to you.
That leads to some interesting jackpot size comparisons
Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($636 million annuity) - California, Georgia
Powerball: $336.8 million cash, Jul. 30, 2016 ($487 million annuity) - New Hampshire
I'll play this later in the week!
To give you some idea of the difference between the annuity and what the cash option would be worth over the same period of time, if you had won a million dollars CV in 1989 (29 years ago) and took the annuity (for the sake of comparison, we'll use the same ratio as they're using today, .565, so $1,000,000/.565=$1,770,000 Annuity Value, if evenly distributed you'd receive a nice check in the mail every year for about $61,000 minus taxes... If you'd taken the CV, you'd get a check for $1,000,000 minus taxes, let's call it $600,000. If you'd invested that into Johnson & Johnson common stock, an extremely well run but boring company, the share price back then was around $6, so you own 100,000shares of J&J. The stock paid a dividend of $1.16/year, if my charts are correct, so that's $116,000 per year dividend income (on a $600,000 investment in such a safe company, that's screaming hot, and not typical) and today those same shares would be paying you $360,000 per year in dividend income pre-tax... And your 100,000 shares would be worth $14,000,000. Or you could be going to the post office this month to pick up your last check for $61,000 if you'd chosen the annuity. ;)
Yep! It's crazy how much the bond prices can sway the anticipated value of the annuity. I forgot to mention that to I*won, that the reason why there is such a large difference is because the bond prices go up and down, thus affecting the ratio between the actual CV and the anticipated annuity value.
Just for fun: by weight of comparison, you win this MM jackpot and take the CV and pay your taxes, give the Lord His 10%, and give away another 10% to loved ones you're left with $440M to invest in a company stock (to grossly oversimplify things your stock will perform just like J&J in our northern example)... In 29 years your dividend income will be $264M per year pre-tax, and the shares would be worth $10.1B.
One of the reasons is the current interest rate versus the interest rate available back in 2016 when the Power Ball jackpot was $1.5864 Billion.
Looking at the current MM jackpot of $1.6 Bil, the cash value is $904.9 Mil.
That is .565562 of $1.6 Bil whereas $983.5 Mil cash value is .619957 of $1.5864 Bil.
The higher the interest rate, the less cash is needed to reach the projected advertised annuity amount. As well as the lower the interest rate, the more cash needed to reach the projected annuity amount.
If the Power Ball lottery from 2016 was held now, the advertised annuity value would be $1,738,978,219
$983.5 mil ÷ .565562 = 1,738,978,219
If the Mega Millions lottery for Tuesday was held back in 2016, the advertised annuity value would be $1,459,617,360
$904.9 mil ÷ .619957 = 1,459,617,360
I think I did this correctly
It's funny to think that if interest rates suddenly took a nose-dive, a typical jackpot could (theoretically) drop from one drawing to the next, even without a jackpot winner!
MM Cash Option( currently): $ 904,900,000.
Minus 37% Feds Accumulation: $ -334,813,000
Net sum in your pocket: $ 570,087,000
**please deduct for for state and local taxes applicably
My take on the 30 year ANNUITY Plan.... Then again, I'm an old curmudgeon
It actually shows how good the economy is doing right now.
THAT'S NOT FUNNY!
LOL! Allow me to rephrase that: "It's peculiar to think..."
Getting any sleep lately Todd?
With all the stories lately, it's keeping you quite busy these days
Hey Todd..... Just curious,has any of our LP community ever contacted you before and said they collected via trust ? Just curious about process and rough dollar cost ?
Thanks everyone for your input. If nothing else I am getting a good education. It is fascinating.
Welcome, I*won, Please feel free to be in it to win it. You only need one two dollar ticket to win.
Good Luck to you!
Yes, it is fascinating, and I don't really care if The Meatman did the math correctly or not......
Just gimme the cashola and I'd be happy.
As for me I never pay a ounce of attention to the advertised MM/PB jackpot amounts. That's because of the following;
1. Maybe nobody will win the JP,
2. Maybe multiple people will win the JP,
3. The IRS is going to get their cut (you aint gettin' anywhere close to the advertised JP amount)
4. It's the annuity amount.... Forget the annuity. I'd take the cash option which is less.
When I play MM or PB, I'm mostly interested in the 2nd place prize, I'm not even thinking about the jackpot. Also, I always buy either the Megaplier or The PowerPlay. The odds for a 2nd place win in PB and MM are either 11.6 million or 12.6 million to 1. That's much better odds to win millions than my states lotto game which right now, is paying $4.3 million for a JP. In my state, to win that 4.3 million Lotto JP, the odds are 22.5 million to 1. G5
Good post!
Well I'm very glad both games jackpots rolled over. I'm ready to purchase a few tickets now.
GiveFive, I am also in NY State and the grocery store where I stop everyday is the lottery retailer that sold the winning ticket for the $11.6 mil NY State lottery on 9/22/18.
It's located on 86th St and Bay Parkway in Brooklyn.
On Sunday 9/23, I walked into the store with a print out of the results to show them they were the location where the lucky quick-pick was sold.
A few days ago, they were informed by the NYS Lottery that they do not receive a bonus for selling the winning ticket. They were told that if they sold a winning MM or PB ticket, then they would get $10,000.
Yes, the NYS lottery jackpot is now a paltry $4.3 mil, but you get 2 games for $1 and I wouldn't mind winning it!
l * think one of these jackpots is going to bite the dust before the end of this week.
Todd Vader is wise!
We need to keep this economy!
Taxes Taxes TAXES!!!!!
The Income Tax is anIndirect Excise Tax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrnVRqjTHSY&t=63s
This is Dave Champion, the Author of "Income Tax: Shattering the Myths" talking about the income tax and the fact that he hasn't filed an Income Tax return since 1993.... TRUTH IS DESTRUCTIVE to the HUMAN MIND!!!!
Bought one MM and one PB this afternoon. I'm buying a ticket a day from different retailers.
I just got back from the supermarket.
Groceries and 1 QP Mega Millions ticket from the lottery machine.
No. But a trust would only be as expensive as the lawyer who sets it up. That is to say, trusts themselves are cheap. The money you spend will be on lawyers, accountants, and financial planners.
Not much!
It would likely be no more than $2500-3000 dollars for the trust document, even a major city. You also need to add in the billable time counsel spends speaking to the lottery officials and billable time for claiming it on your behalf, travel time, etc. Most decent experienced attorneys with expertise will charge $300 to 600 an hour and you do not want some entry level assocIate claiming the money for you. I am referring to the claiming /collecting trust only...not any other trusts you might set up after the money hits your bank account.
I had one set up for my assets vs a will. A claiming trust would be a simple document but you want to go to a firm that does trusts and estates 24/7. A trust includes other documents like medical directives, burial wishes, a pour over will for any amount over the state $ trust limit, who gets what if you are incapacitated or die, a power of attorney (limited), etc.
Do you think it is important to have a claiming trust in either of these scenarios: your state guarantees total anonymity or your state allows a trust but will still blast your name to every media outlet it can? Is the claiming trust just to guarantee anonymity?
-For a total anonymous state like MD, I would still claim with a trust that was not your name...New toys for Fluffy..lol. Assuming they allow this option. You want to blur that trail to you. Some low level bank clerk could talk or get bribed. This is for the claiming trust only.
2nd scenario. Does not matter re: anonymity. If you have the option to claim with a trust maybe there could be some tax advantages with it all being payable to a charitable trust that pays you something yearly...but check with experts. But I think you would have to give up control over most or all the money.
I was just at the store where I purchase my tickets and I was the only customer there!
I think people already spent a lot of their money on the last drawing!
Thinly veiled political opinion. Meatman is correct, the reduction in CV value vs. annuity is driven by rising interest rates as it is with any other annuity. Interest rates are being raised to curb inflation by the Fed, not a reflection of how the overall economy is doing. Economics 101
I'm no economist, but it's my understanding that the Fed keeps interest rates low during recessions in order to try to "heat up" the economy, but once the market begins to "heat up" the Fed raises rates in order to "cool" it down. IOW, a "hot" economy causes inflation, which forces the Fed to put on the brakes by raising interest rates.
Exactly right. Econ 101. It has zero to do with politics.
A good example of just the opposite of what you describe, recession + high interest rates:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1980s_recession_in_the_United_States
Ok. You found an anecdote that supports your conclusion. But there is no denying that the economy is red hot right now. If you want to bring politics into it, Republicans credit President Trump and his policies (not to mention the high level of confidence that he inspires in consumers, business owners, and investors) for this boom. Or, on the other hand, Democrats give credit to President Obama, claiming that this boom is the delayed result of his fiscal policies... Just don't tell me the economy isn't doing well.
You misunderstand my point, I'm not saying the economy is not doing well. Simply that as I originally stated the difference between the cv and annuity is not a direct reflection of how the economy is doing as was implied.
All right... Peace!... Sorry for jumping down your throat.
Thanks A... I was thinking around the $10K mark to have it all drawn up,along with the Atty. being the collector for the trust,the day we go to Lotto HQ to collect. I just want to be on the required IRS form on that collection date..no other affiliation at all
There's always a thinly veiled political opinion on this site. Sometimes the veil isn't all that thin. If it's not political, it's racial. It never stops
Thank you for your insight. One thing I hadn’t considered is just being outed at my bank. I can see I am going to have to ratchet up my level of paranoia to a whole other level.
You might as well throw religion into that mix as well Teddi.If you from the islands, you practising voodoo.
You can also ask the attorney about other costs and cap it and say you cannot exceed that amount without my approval. Clients do that all the time. I plan to say don't waste more than an hour talking to the DC lottery officials and claim it within x days after I approved the trust. I am collecting via a trust and the DC lottery people can whine all they want. I guess the DC lottery was unhappy and never changed their vague rules after the last big winner in 2009 claimed via a trust. I plan to do the same. You do not need to go with the attorney if you are in a state with a trust option.
Does anyone know who much money each state puts in for the MM and PB when someone wins..?
I have never really worried about anonymity. Perhaps I am simply naive about my ability to shirk off the relentless attention that a jackpot win would certainly bring along with it, or it might just be that I'd love to win & let the cards fall where they may... But, whatever the reason, I now feel that my indifference might just be selfishness, and the right thing to do would be to resist the rules... If you live in a state that doesn't allow you to claim your win anonymously, try to force them to allow you to claim anonymously anyway, for the sake of future jackpot winners. Maybe we can set a new precedent. Just a thought.
You can't change state law where it is clear, like in Virginia. You would have to come up with an extreme set of facts to even survive a motion to dismiss where the state law is 110% clear. I would simply aim to try to negotiate a delay in releasing your name, like 60 days. You cannot try to set precedent unless there is some unique fact pattern that the rules did not take into account. Saying I don't wanna is not going to work.
That makes sense. I guess it would take a couple of cases where a jackpot winner gets murdered before they'd change the precedent.
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the religious arguments.
Lotto Lucy,
There's a professor at a nearby junior college who had put together a promotion for a regional bank, open an account be put in a drawing for a special edition Winchester 97.
The bank as a result got tons of new accounts, the promo was extremely popular.
No low profile for the guy who pit it together, either.
A few years later he contacted the same bank and asked them if they wanted to do it again.
The bank told him they did not want that much money coming in as after a certain amount they get looked at a lot more closely and are constantly visited by bank managers.
Not that they were doing anything shady but were already jumping through hoops from the first promotion.
This is mentioned in the introduction to the book Murder in Little Egypt (nickname for Southern illinois).
It all depends on the sales for each individual state.
Food for thought from a Statistician.
* A straightforward mathematical calculation using the dimensions of a dollar bill reveals it will take two semi-trailers to deliver the 302,575,350. dollar bills to my house. Once these arrive, they will have to be unloaded, of course, so you will have a fair chance to pick the lucky dollar bill. So, we will lay them out end to end. How long will that line of dollar bills go?
If we start from my house, we’ll have enough dollar bills to go all the way south to Disney World in Orlando. Then we’ll still have enough to go clear across the country to Disneyland! But, even then, we are not out of dollar bills, so we can go north and make it all the way to Portland, Oregon. Still, we have dollar bills, enough to make it all the way east to Portland, Maine. And, fortunately, we’ll have enough to make it back to my house near DC, completing the loop.
Do we have any dollars bills left? Yes! We would still have enough dollar bills to go all the way around the loop a second time!
Now imagine that you walk, bike or drive for as long as you want around the double loop, and when you decide to stop, you stoop over and pick up the one MARKED dollar bill. Your chance of selecting the lucky dollar bill is one in 302 million, the same as your chance of winning the Mega Million jackpot!
Wasserstein is the executive director of the American Statistical Association.
However, l continue to believe in the expected...
Thanks for the capping info. At these massive jackpot take-home amounts, I won't get overly concerned by a reputable attorney for adding a couple of hours. I do like the claim it within X days after trust approval. As far as going with the atty ??? I am the "trust but verify" kind of person... I think I will meet my rep there, hand them the ticket and watch the transaction happen, to include the wire transfer.
Exactly...and close together in time in your state.
I was friendly with an account manager at Suntrust. And I use that term deliberately. We were friendly with each other but didn't hang out together. We didn't call each other up to gab on the phone or anything like that. AKA friendly but not friends. Anyway, a pro footballer banked at that branch and she told me what I would consider private information about his banking habits. Can't imagine what she reveals to her BFF or DH.
My father has the same name as a rather famous singer/musician and one day a woman showed up at our house insisting on meeting him. She got our address from our bank.
2 separate incidents decades apart and yet, they've given me enough insight to let me know what to avoid in the future when it comes to how and where I bank.
Well then I definitely don't want to be the one to set that new precedent, lol! I'll sit up straight and smile for the cameras!