You can ask for a down payment of maybe 10k-15k to tide you over. They may refuse that so just go to a bank and they will loan you all the money you want at probably a very low interest rate. Probably zero if you promise to deposit a huge chunk with them after it clears.

Guilty until proven innocent

Congrats on winning 44 Million Dollars.

The first you should always do is hire an attorney to act on your behalf before you go to the Lottery Office.

Instead of going on the local news and crying about it and trying to get the public sentiment in your favor to pressure the lottery to speed your process up.

If every other state can do it in 14 days California is complicating the process because they like to get in their own way about everything. Or they're collecting their own interest while it sits in their account. 

personally I think anyone who wins here should also sue and file for the lost interest for however long after 14 days it takes them to payout. A few of those and California lottery will suddenly find a way to become more efficient or hire the appropriate staff to process their 10000 claims. 

Edwin Castro took the cash option of $628m. At 4.25% that's $513,000 in interest he lost for every week he waited.

Sounds like California Lottery is making the process super complicated.

I live in Colorado and here are the Powerball regulations for my state:

14.A.6 Payment of Prizes A. - Grand Prizes shall be paid at the election of the Ticket Holder either by a single cash payment or in a series of annuity payments. The Ticket Holder becomes entitled to the Prize at the time the Prize is validated as a Prize Winner. However, the Grand Prize is paid by the Lottery upon receipt of funds from MUSL no earlier than fifteen (15) calendar days of Validation of the Grand Prize Ticket and when the player makes their final selection of cash or annuity, no later than sixty (60) days after Validation of the Grand Prize Ticket.  If the Ticket Holder does not make a payment election within sixty (60) days after Validation, then the Prize shall be paid as an annuity Prize.

I don’t play a lot of Powerball or Mega Millions simply because the odds are so long.  I mostly play the “Lucky for Life” and “Colorado Lotto+” (Colorado’s version of Megabucks), both of which I’m more likely to take the annuity over the lump sum.  Both also state that “the initial payment will be made at the time of the claim” and I also found it interesting that the regs also state “Prizes may be paid prior to receiving authorization from the Clearinghouse Lottery”.

"You can ask for a down payment of maybe 10k-15k to tide you over. They may refuse that so just go to a bank and they will loan you all the money you want at probably a very low interest rate. Probably zero if you promise to deposit a huge chunk with them after it clears. "

This might be a hard sell to a bank as you probably won’t be able to convince them you’re a legit lottery winner who hasn’t been paid by the lottery yet.  I also hope he's not planing to deposit $16 million into a Wells Fargo checking account. lol

A big sum such as this Powerball win, I hope they have a lawyer and a wealth/estate manager.  Your lawyer or wealth manager (from a reputable law firm) would be much better at securing funds to tide you over until your prize win hits your account.

 Isn't it about 99 44/100th% sure when they take that picture of you with the big check when you first go in to claim it that you won. There may be some child support taken out or something or back taxes. I get you don't actually get the money that day but most have a bank account and if you asked nicely for an extended line of credit or a major overdraft increase I would think they would oblige or risking losing you as a customer.

If you need cash quick, I'm sure there are numerous ways to get it from your regular bank; loans, lines or credit, new credit cards, mortgage refinance, etc., especially if you're a long term client in good standing.  All without telling them you're a lottery winner.

I'll disagree with you on a "pic of you with a giant check" is proof of a win.  Google "custom printed giant check" and you'll find many companies can do that.  But, it may be easier just to photoshop yourself into another winners pic.  And now with AI more and more prevalent, I'm sure it's a lot easier to commit all types of identity theft.

My point is, when I win millions and millions of $$$.  I'm not telling anyone.  Not even employees at my regular bank, who have access to to my accounts...and my home address.

Texas handbook says the payment for mega millions is processed 4 days after the claim date. They have the whole process of claim online and seeing if any debts are owed is a click of a button. So unless a claimant can't provide any useful info about purchasing the ticket and there's no video wth is the lottery doing for weeks and why? 

I think the most important question here is if the state lottery receives interest on the amount while it's in their accounts.

I was typing this as a reply, but I think the original comment got deleted as I was typing this.  I'll post it anyway.

You’re 100% correct in stating that a private bank like Morgan Stanley (or other similar) is your best bet.  But I would also have my estate/wealth manager set that up as they would have much better contacts than me just randomly contacting a bank out of the blue.

Keep in mind that that this discussion only started as a need to get “$10k-$15k” to tide you over until your actual prize $$$ hit’s your account.  Personally, I wouldn’t need any $$$ to tide me over for a couple months (some savings and a lot of available credit is nice ).  But if you live paycheck to paycheck and then quit your job as soon as you find out you’re a winner, you may need the extra cash.  That also may be an entirely difference discussion on financial irresponsibility.

I state it again, when I win, I’m not telling anyone.  If I don’t have the $$$ in 60 days, my lawyer would be the best person to find out what the holdup is.  And they would also be filing multiple lawsuits on my behalf; to get the money, to get the interest on the money, etc., if the holdup reason is not acceptable by me.  That’s why I would hire a lawyer, to make the process smoother for me and to keep my name out of everything.

A quick Google search tells me that you can’t claim anonymously or via a trust in California.  Your full name is part of the public record.  So, here’s hoping you have a common name, lol.  In Colorado, they only disclose your first name, last initial and hometown (such as John S. from Denver), so that’s a little better… but California doesn’t have state taxes on lottery winnings and Colorado does…

I also believe the CA lottery purposely drags its feet in paying out winners simply to collect more interest. Carolyn Becker is acting like CA is special and unique in the fact that it performs background checks, but all states do that, and they still manage to pay in less than half the time it takes CA. 9 weeks is plenty of time to determine if "Jerry" owes child support or whatever. He should get a lawyer at this point.

Morgan Stanley and the like have wealth managers unless you just already know one you like. But I'd choose one experienced and unimpressed with millions of dollars personally. i don't think the real issue is getting money in the mean time. The issue is how freaking long it takes California to pay out and the money you're losing on interest during that time. 

This one is 9 weeks and at the most conservative investment with that is $12k a week loss. On another they took 5 months. On a big jackpot, you're leaving millions on the table waiting weeks. You shouldn't need a loan to tide you over. It's not a gift they're giving out of the kindness of their heart or a favor. The winner is entitled to the payment in a reasonable time and I hope someone takes them to task for it.

Newsweek puts out a “best lawyers/law firms in America” each year for each law practice category.  I would start there and see if any of the top firms under the category of private client or estate management are in your city, or in the city you want to move to.  I think Time magazine might do some similar.

The August $44.3 million Powerball win would be a deposit of $16.7 million ($21.9 cash value minus the $5.2 in federal taxes automatically taken out).  My Fidelity brokerage account pays 4.5% interest on any uninvested cash (it was 5% before the fed rate cut).  Anyway, that would be $62k a month (or $14,451/week).  My lawyer would certainly be suing for that.  But in reality, we don’t know what the holdup reason is.  Your lawyer would need to find that out.  And if the reason is simply “the paperwork is still making its way through the system”, well that’s not a good reason, especially after 60 days.

 "It's not a gift they're giving out of the kindness of their heart or a favor. The winner is entitled to the payment in a reasonable time and I hope someone takes them to task for it."

I agree 100%

In Georgia..you can get some in 24 hours, then some in 8 days, then some in 14 days, etc...im no opposed to them getting and making sure he the winner..there are a lot of scams out there..but I do know they have forensics at the headquarters and they can find out if you purchased your tickets..my friend wasted cologne on one of her tickets..she played a number ten times straight and cologne got on two of them..she had to FedEx in and let forensics do their job..it took six months and they determined the tickets were legit

Attorneys be stealing

All I'm seeing is the lottery looking for a reason not to pay....., shame on you lottery commission

10% penalty interest, just like the IRS penalty interest.    Starting after 4 weeks, which is more than enough time to settle a jackpot payment. 

If you have only market interest, there still is no incentive to pay the jackpot in a timely manner (ie, they break even no matter how long  the delay)

don't think it would help, but if there was a TV station in Sacramento that does investigative reporting, it would @ least bring to light what is  happening.

Grant it, California being so large and many lottery offices, something still awry to me.   With this electronic age settlement should be much quicker. 

If someone could get their IG involved in this debacle, maybe the complacent attitude could get adjusted.  May take the almighty pen in their legislature to mandate how long it takes to settle a claim.

We are going to live in a deflationary economy in the coming years. Technology will keep making things cheaper. We might not need money survive, therefore playing lottery games would be useless.

This is a warning to everyone Don't quit your Day Job after winning the lottery just wait till you get Paid. Before am worried about Illinois iou now am worried about  California iou too 😊🙏

l was thinking of buying lottery tickets in California but not anymore will have to keep my old job for 12 months before l say l quit Crazy 😁

Your correct. Everyone must have forgot about the " lottery lawyer" . He's now in federal prison......

Sounds boring

But of course other professions do not steal.

I live in a Red State and won a lottery. I was paid in 2 hours.

California is a Blue State and is a bureaucratic nightmare. If you like Communism by all means live there.

Buyer beware

Justing, there will always be a few lawyers that are on that level. Remember, there is a lid for every trash can. Here is an option for your consideration; https://www.lotterylawyercpa.com/lottery-winner-accountant/

It does appear that CA likes to hold onto their lottery money. That background package is a bit of a ploy. However the article is clear on not knowing the exact date for filing the claim. Still, 15-30 calender days seems long enough to clear any type of "IOU" to all state agencies or court ordered decision......Pay up California. Your bill is overdue

I believe there should be a cooling off period for jackpots. With the excitement of a massive win, many winners can make impulsive decisions that they may come to regret. The UK National Lottery offers winners financial advice, along with the right to anonymity, which is very helpful for people with newfound wealth. All lotteries should offer similar advice.

In the US we're generally opposed to other people deciding they know what's best for us, especially when they're collecting interest on my money instead of me. I'll take my interest and consequences, keep your cooling off period.

So how do we figure out which one is a crook?

"I think the most important question here is if the state lottery receives interest on the amount while it's in their accounts. "

You don't think they put the money in the bank or a brokerage account an hoe not to lose any of it, do you? If you choose the annuity the funds are invested on government securities because they're about the safest investment  available. Treasury bills mature in as little as 4 weeks, and are available for auction weekly, so figure that would require tying the money up for 5 weeks. Right now, investing the cash for 4 weeks would earn about $96,000 in interest. On one hand 96k is 96k, and OTOH 96k isn't even chump change to California. I'm skeptical that they'd bother delaying payment in order to have enough time to invest the funds. Routine bureaucracy strikes me as a  likely explanation.

"And they would also be filing multiple lawsuits on my behalf "

And what would be your cause of action? That you don't like them following the rules you agreed to when you bought the ticket? That you'd like them to pay you interest that they never said they'd pay? Unless they're violating their own rules or doing something else that leaves them with unclean hands you're almost certainly SOL.

The missing part to all of this is - we dont know what the state is 'doing' and why its taking so long.  There could be any number of issues, with the winner, that slowed the states investigation.  Maybe he had someone buy/pick up his tickets that day? So the video would not show him buying them?  Maybe the store doesn't have camera's and they had to subpoena other busyness's outside camera's.  Maybe he has issues that the state needs to work through - child support, proof of who he is ect.  What if there is a address discrepancy. 

We just dont know.  Hopefully its none of the things listed and just the state being slow for some odd reason and he gets paid soon.   

  I would rather win it and wait for weeks than not win it at all. Just the confirmed knowledge that you won would be enough to get a short term loan if you needed the money that bad. Patience is a virtue. However, if they are holding it to get interest on your money for another month or two that should be investigated.

This is very strange. I know that MUSL has to collect the sales from the participating states and then send the prize money to the state which sold the winning ticket. With money being sent electronically these days, it shouldn't take this long.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon and he will have his winnings.

* Jerry got paid out 2 weeks ago. He was cut a check for $17mil after taxes.