From the Powerball website.
A couple of them are below, all 28 are listed on the link.
I'm putting this in Lottery Discussions and not Jackpot Games because I'm sure at least a few of them apply to all lotteries:
CAN I REMAIN ANONYMOUS WHEN I HIT THE JACKPOT?
All but three states (DE, KS, ND) have laws that require the lottery to release the name and city of residence to anyone who asks. One state (SC) will keep your name secret if you request it, but if someone files a Freedom of Information Act request, you may have to file a plea with the judge to deny it. Photos and press conferences are always up to you. Most of the time, it is advisable to get it over with the press so that you don't have one or more reporters following you around to get that "exclusive" interview. A few more lotteries may work with you on setting up a trust or other partnership. You or your representative should contact the lottery for the details after you win.
WHAT HAPPENS TO AN ANNUITY PRIZE IF THE WINNER DIES?
A lottery prize is just like any other asset. You can pass any remaining annuity payments on to your heirs or to anyone else. The Powerball game will even cash out an annuity prize for an estate. This may make it easier for the estate to distribute the prize. It also may be necessary to cash out the annuity to pay Federal estate taxes.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET MY MONEY? It takes two weeks to collect the cash from the stores around the nation. If you go to the lottery to claim your prize after that two weeks, then you can generally have the jackpot money (all cash or the first of the annual payments) hit your bank account the next day - maybe the following day if you come to the lottery office very late in the day. That said, you will have no trouble getting a little credit if you wish to buy something big before the two weeks time. Just mention my name - and that you are the Powerball winner.
HOW COME THE ONLY JACKPOT WINNERS ARE FROM THE [EAST - WEST - NORTH - SOUTH - CITIES - RURAL AREAS]?
HOW COME ONLY [WHITE, BLACK, TALL, SKINNY, YOUNG, OLD] PEOPLE WIN?
Powerball is a random game that knows nothing about who buys a ticket or where the ticket was purchased. There really is no white/black/old/young/rich/poor, etc.] button on the machine. If one draws a box around some group of players (eg., state border, hair color, shoe size), then that group of players will win in proportion to their play. If the defined group buys 10% of the tickets, then they will win 10% of the prizes - on average and over a reasonable period of time. The Law of Large numbers explains how random expectations become truer as the number of occurrences increases. So, if players in a particular group buy 8.6754% of the tickets, then we will find, if the number of occurrences (prizes awarded) are large enough, that those players win 8.6754% of the prizes. This is definitely true for the low-tier prizes where there are large numbers of winners. With 12 to 15 jackpot winners in a year, we would expect that these percentages can get out of sync with sales from time to time, but as the number of jackpot winners continues to increase, we will find that the percentage numbers move closer and closer to being the same number. Try this experiment. Flip a coin four times. You might get 75% heads - or even 100%. But then flip it 1,000 times (no cheating). You will come much closer to the statistical expectation of 50% heads. It really does NOT make any difference where you buy your ticket.
WHICH HAS THE BETTER CHANCE OF WINNING: COMPUTER PICKS OR PLAYER PICKS? About 70% to 80% of purchases are computer picks. About 70% to 80% of winners are computer picks. Perhaps just one of those weird coincidences?
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IS THE CASH AMOUNT THE JACKPOT AMOUNT AFTER TAXES?
No. When we advertise a prize of $100 million paid over 29 years (30 payments), we actually have less than $50 million in cash. When someone wins the jackpot and wants cash, we give them all of the cash in the jackpot prize pool. If the winner wants the annuity, we invest the $50 million in cash to fund the annuity payments. The winner gets the cash plus the interest earned. When you see an estimated jackpot annuity prize, we are estimating both sales and what the market's prices on certain securities will be. The annuity jackpot amount and the cash jackpot amount that we announce are always estimates until sales are final and, for the annuity jackpot, until we take bids on the purchase of securities.
Federal and State Income tax apply to whatever income you actually receive in a given tax year, whether it is wages or lottery prizes. If you take the cash amount (say $50 million), then you pay income tax on $50 million). If you take the annuity (say $100 million), then you pay income tax on the money you actually receive each year. Just like your wages, a withholding amount is required to be taken out immediately. The lottery will send you a W2-G form and you figure your actual tax at tax time.
CASH VS. ANNUITY - MY FINANCIAL EXPERT SAYS HE CAN EARN MORE THAN THE ANNUITY WITH THIS CASH. Maybe. We have seen that even financial experts forget about taxes. From the example above, if the winner takes the cash, then the winner will have to pay state and federal taxes on the cash amount. The amount of income tax will vary, but it will likely be somewhere close to half the cash amount. With $50 million as a cash prize, a cash winner will have less than $30 million to invest. We don’t pay any income tax and so start out by investing the whole $50 million. You should note that current tax rates are pretty low right now and may go higher in the future. Federal rates for 2006 are at 35% (and Powerball winners end up in that maximum tax bracket).
Sometimes financial experts also do not understand how the annuity prize is paid out. We do not hold the prize for 29 years and then pay it all out. The Powerball annuity prize is an annuity stream. The winner gets the first payment immediately and then an annual payment for the next 29 years. And this is guaranteed. It is possible to beat this income stream, but not without risk. Deciding how to take the prize can be a complicated decision, but it is an important one that deserves your attention. You have 60 days, after you claim your ticket, to make the decision. Get lots of advice and ask these kinds of questions.
http://www.powerball.com/pb_contact.asp