Way to go Arizona, congrats.

Isn't Arizona an anonymous state?

Not my friend in Mesa, darn it.

AZ cannot offer on-line sales, I emailed them about that last week.   Due to Tribal agreements in that state they said. 

  My 13 tickets on-line were all losers, and the one I bought in the store hit for $4.

Would really like it if it was a group of players, been some time since that has happened.

Great win Arizona.  Hope the winner stay anonymous

What a joke those big games.!!!

Usually is 1 winner.

I wouldn't waste my money on them.

Why don't they make a bunch of winners on those large amounts ?

Yes, Bleudog101, Arizona is an anonymous State for big winners. As Todd's original post stated. 

 I was hoping for a win here in California. I am not getting any younger!

" In a way" l was semi right.The winner was closer to the West Coast than the East. I should have gone with the name " Lotto Prophet" originally, but decided against it. Made $6.00 from my $4.00 investment. Oh well, onwards, upwards.

* Close, but no cigar.

That my friend, is the sanest post you have ever put out there. Let me guess, you got a girlfriend.

Congrats to the Winner(s)!

Very happy for the person in Arizona. Don't think that I will be playing Mega and Powerball again for A Very long time, if ever! If they think that I'm going to pay them the full price for a game that they have reduced the winnings for by half, then they have a very vivid imagination. I can't understand for the life of me why anybody would play. Now if they charged $1.00 for a ticket, then I might consider it, but still couldn't guarantee that I'd play!! I think that in their effort to be greedy, they are going to eventually ruin a good thing!!!

GjTheManHimself !   Plus, it sadly takes twice as long for the jackpot to be won.  Before the added numbers, 11 jackpot wins per year. Now sadly, only 3 or 4 jackpot wins/new multi-millionaires created per year.

NOTE: In the "Worldwide Jackpots" section it shows that Lotto Texas has a higher jackpot than Mega Millions!

Congrats to the winner in Arizona

Like many people on here I have now quit both the Mega Millions and Powerball until they come up with better versions of both games
which does not seem likely anytime soon.

.. but would we be hearing that from you IF you won? Did someone drive you to store at gunpoint & tell you to buy a ticket? Come on big guy. Did you forget the odds?

It's about perceived value and right now it's not looking good for either Mega millions or Powerball.

l hear you, but just take a gander at the odds? If you placing a $2.00 bet and you win, your ROI is tremendous. Going into these games with the idea that you & only you are going to win is wishful thinking. I will continue to play my $2.00 because there is always a chance l " could" win. Not playing & complaining is counterproductive.

congrats to the winner and i totally i agree with you MG should take it down to 1.00 it doesn't make sense paying 2 bucks and yet they reduced back to 20million as the starting point like how it used to be back then. am gonna hold off until i see changes and they should spread out and have more winners rather than one person winning hundreds of million $$$$$$$$$

you right now its gone take forever for the jackpots to grow and they should it take back to 1$$$

you right its a total joke am going to hold off playing for a while i spent 10 bucks and got nothing

It said one winning ticket,  how is anyone assuming one person,  it could be 2 people ,   5 people.

 I'll play Powerball again when the cash value hits $80,000,000+ !

Never happen.   The corporations run the country.   then start your own.

Well if it were legal, we probably could start a lottery!  Furthermore, it would probably also be a better designed game, with better winnings!!

I'll say it again, combine both games somehow and maybe have two drawings a week.  Keep the current price and maybe improve the odds.   Pipe dream I know, just like it the way it used to be...$40 million starting jackpots and guaranteed jackpot increase if not won.   Those days are long gone.  We wont' have Todd running the top 25 in a long time--if ever again with snail pace increases.

I think that would be a good idea and call the new game Mega/Powerball and keep it at 5/70 and change the Mega ball to 1/28.

The other change would be 3 tickets for $5 or $1.67 for each ticket or you can still buy 1 ticket for $2 if you like.

The other change I would like to see is the elimination of the Federal income tax on lottery prizes.

On this latest Mega Millions jackpot winner they will pay 37% Federal and 5% Arizona state income tax for

a total of 42%.

Lets say they take the cash option of $316 million and after Federal and State tax deductions they will be left with $183 million and they would have paid $132 million in Federal and State taxes.

That is way too much in taxes and that is why we have to eliminate the Federal taxes or bring the rate down

to 20% which is enough in taxes

I'm sure there are some deductions that a CPA can put in place but, the numbers here are in the ball park.

In Canada, ALL lottery prizes are TAX FREE and you are paid in a lump sum as soon as you bring the ticket

to the lottery office for verification and they write you the check that day.

I would also like the option of remaining anonymous when you claim the jackpot.

Does anyone know who we could contact to start to change the Federal tax rate on lottery prizes?

I think its worth a try to lower or eliminate the Federal tax rate from 37% and allow the lottery winner

to keep more of their winnings which someday could be somebody on here.

Saw were tickets sales was 27,571,247 for the 6/9 drawing with 138,064 in Arizona. There was a less than 10% chance on having a winning ticket with an advertised jackpot of $410 million. It sure looks like players decided to spend their lottery gambling dollars on other lottery games.

Don't expect the lottery to get up that high again for a very long time....

My feeling on Federal taxes and getting rid of them for lottery wins is that folks are inclined to spend lots of the money so give them more to spend.

A couple of years, maybe three, ago the IRS wanted to decrease the ceiling from $1200 to $600 on casino wins.   The casino lobbyists got busy and prevented this.   IDK if there are any groups out there for lottery wins.

Congratulations Arizona!!!

In all seriousness, though, its gonna be a while before it gets that big again, probably late Sept. or so is my prediction (if the streak of no one winning the jackpot continues that long). Congrats to the big winner in AZ.

Exactly. It took I think 15 draws for the Powerball to hit 135m which is almost 2 months. To hit 400m is going to take 6 months. So it would roll until December (Christmas).

I wasn't aware that the IRS wanted to lower the taxable winnings amount from $1200 to $ 600 which of course would allow them to collect more taxes.

Anyway I think 37% is too high of a rate just for winning a jackpot.

It's going to be a long summer of small jackpots for PB and Mega.

Wisconsin took home the Powerball for June 10th. Almost a back to back jackpot win. Some won't play at these levels but I bet the winner is excited. 

Hey Noise-gate:

If I won, you are correct, I probably would not be complaining, because with 410 Mil, I doubt if I'd be playing again anyhow!! But, if I did play again, why would I complain about the game being $2, $4, $6, whatever the amount. Because at that point, I'm playing with house money!!

But if you still want to pay full price for half of what you should be getting, go right ahead. I'm sure the Lottery Boards of Directors will love you.

I also guess that you would be willing to go to a Burger Joint and pay full price for a hamburger, and they serve you 1/2 of it, instead of the whole burger. Or better, yet, you go to a Car Dealership and buy a New Car for the full price, and they give you half a Car to drive off the lot with, LOL!! I can hear the salesman asking you, which end would you prefer....you can have either the front end or the back end!!

Arizona joined the Mega Millions game on 04/2010.  So, it took just over 10 years to sell their first jackpot winning ticket. Ouch!

What I do like is say you have $1100 in a slot machine and you hit for $900 on a regular, NOT bonus play the machines are set to spit out a ticket for the $900.   Now if you were in a jackpot or bonus play or whatever you want to call it then you're on the hook for $2K for IRS purposes.   Happened to me numerous times.   One time was in the bonus free games and the grand total came to $1199--lots of cheers and high fives on that one!

Reality Check

Someone nabbed the $410 million Mega Millions jackpot. Now, here’s that tax bill

While the windfall will be a life-changing bonanza, the advertised amount isn’t what the winner will actually end up with.

Whether the jackpot is claimed as an annuity or lump sum, federal and state taxes will be withheld, and more will likely be due at tax time.

For this jackpot, the cash option — the choice most winners go with — is $316.8 million. The required 24% federal tax withholding would reduce that amount by $76 million. 

Then there are state taxes. In Arizona,  the withholding rate is 4.8%, which would mean another $15.2 million getting shaved off the top.

In other words, that $316.8 million cash option would be reduced by $91.2 million, leaving the winner with $225.6 million headed for their bank account.\

However, additional taxes could be due to Uncle Sam.

The top marginal income tax rate at the federal level is 37%. If there are no reductions to the winner’s taxable income — such as large charitable contributions — another 13%, or $41.2 million, would be due to the IRS at tax time (which would be April 2021 for jackpots claimed in 2020).

That would be $117.2 million, in all, going to the IRS. 

Source: CNBC.

Congratulation to all the winners. The extra buck for the Megaplier part help too.                                      Nice.

All this time thought the resident tax rate was 5%, hey 4.8%=more for the winner!    Out of state players get 6%.

Texted my best friend out there in the same <snip> city and she didn't even buy tickets.. <snip> it lol next time 

Congrats to all the winnerz

l was focusing on the $117 mil that Uncle Sam would take or thereabouts.As Dannyct famously says  " All your jackpot winnings Down under & in the UK come Tax- Free." Wouldn't it be nice..

• On a side note, l noticed the PB jackpot was bagged by someone in Wis. Would that be you " Unlucky- Kenny?" Not saying anything yet? I get that- finally came into your own huh, you sly dog.
• Premature Congrats nonetheless 

I know there's a lot of complaining about the $20 million starting point (actually, who really plays for the annuity?) and maybe for some people, that's just not enough money to get them through life. But, geez, I can make it just fine on that amount. Trading $2 for $20 million? Yeah. I've been playing various jackpot lotteries for decades, no point in quitting now.

And yes. I would believe the winner is pretty happy.

I'm not too thrilled with the $20 million starting point, however I think it used to be even lower.   $20 million with a nice cash value would suit me fine, even a million dollars is just fine.  Though I did say I wouldn't play them anymore, haven't slowed down one bit!!   Only a game.

Aah, l missed your response Gj, but here is my 2cents.

You mentioned " you still want to pay for HALF of what you should be getting" well not according to the Musl. They set the new terms & players have to abide by them or not play at all. Unless haggling with a customer over price, we know going in what we getting into, just because there is a change, does not mean you have the right to want what was at one time. Example: You get on a bus, the driver says " another 75 cents if you please" you respond, but l paid this amount three days ago. He looks at you and says" this is the new fare, you going to pay it or get off the bus?" What we have here is a bus issue- you pay, you play. Thinking about the " change in price is irrelevant at this point."

As for you half a car example- well as luck would have it, l know of a mechanic that did buy half a car, how you say? Well some nut collided with his car after midnight, pushed the front all in, so he^ the mechanic went to " pick a part" or wrecking yard, found a decent engine & installed that thing. Your burger scenario is a long short for me but... You could end up buying 1/2 a burger in size and when you complain, the staff may say " we only open for take out, we cook minimum but we promise you we will get back to our original size once we up & running full time." By the way you could drop a few lbs, so in a way- we helping you out.

It's high time the greed has to stop. No one needs a gigantic jackpot and that is other people's money anyhow. The odds are terrible, the ticket price too high and the times are bad. This is what's wrong. There has to be a change much like change has to be everywhere. 

You always benefit the state coffers and if you love paying taxes go ahead for 0 return.

Spent 20 of my currently 47 yrs. in AZ. It's a Dry Heat~Congrats!

Mainly off Ray Road, then onto Via de Ventura

Gg-Keep the peace.

If I recall correctly the odds against winning PB or MM were raised because the players wanted "gigantic jackpots" and what players want is dictated by ticket sales. Most states have a variety of games with "better odds" so PB and MM are not the only games in town.

The clerk where I get gas said she had an extra MM ticket on Tuesday and asked if I wanted it and gave her two bucks. My lowest number was higher than any of the drawn numbers and my bonus number looked like it belonged in another game. I took a chance and lost $2, just like the other over 199 million combinations matching zero numbers and no bonus number. And it's not like they changed either game from something "easy to win". 

Suggestion, if you don't like the games, don't play them.

Shut up and don't play then. Don't come here with your socialist BS agenda. People know what their getting into when they gamble.

DUPE

Just read where the jackpot winners from AZ are a couple: He 70 years of age, the wife 63 or thereabouts.Been playing the lottery for over 35 years.

* At least it's not some drugged out 18 year old punk.

Congratulations!!!! But never in Detroit that's why I don't waste my money

That's what I be saying and let more inner city win and more states besides Cali,newyork,Texas,it's always the same states

You have been saying? You only have 3 posts & none of them talk about " Cali, NY or Texas" always winning. You had better repent from your ways & walk the narrow moving forward.

Please dear god don't let wokenuts come for the lottery.