Lottery jackpot records
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Lottery jackpot records have always attracted attention of lottery analysts and players.
It is generally believed that Spanish Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad is the world's largest lottery. On Christmas 2003 its prize fund approached around $2.2 billion, with the first prize of $470 million and the second one of $235 million. No one however won these prizes. Mark Murphy from the Dublin suburb, Tallaght in Dublin Ireland was the winner of the first prize. However, as every number entered is printed on 170 tickets which are usually sold in fractions (usually tenths), the El Gordo prizes are usually split between multiple winners. Therefore the winnings single players receive are generally less than in the other popular lotteries and are far from the “winner-takes-all” concept popular elsewhere.[citation needed]
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[edit] United States
In the United States, prizes in lotteries are taxable. Jackpot winners, in many, but not all cases, have the option to claim their prizes in lump sum or in annuity When a winner collects in lump sum, the winner receives the cash value of the advertised annuitized jackpot; the "remainder" of the prize represents the interest that would have been paid out had the winner chosen the annuity. In that case, the winner receives yearly payments, generally 20, 25, or 30. Jackpot winners, assuming the option is available, almost always choose the lump sum. Massachusetts Megabucks was one of the last jackpot games to be annuity only, however, the new "Doubler" addition allows for the grand prize to be taken as a lump sum
[edit] Largest jackpots
Mega Millions is a lottery played in 12 U.S states. Since it was created in 1996, it was known as The Big Game until its name was changed in 2002. It also known for its large jackpot prizes and big odds. On March 6, 2007, a Mega Millions jackpot worth $390 million was split by two ticket holders from two states, Georgia and New Jersey. To date, this is the largest recorded payout in the world.
The largest Powerball jackpot was taken by eight co-workers from Nebraska meat processing plant who jointly bought a single ticket that has earned them $365 million in the drawing held Feb. 18, 2006.
[edit] Large lump sum payments
- Dolores McNamara, housewife, a resident of Limerick, Ireland, won a tax-free lump sum of €115,436,126 (~$154m) when she hit a nine-week rollover jackpot. McNamara was the World's biggest individual lottery winner (in terms of money actually received after deductions) until May 2009, when a 25-year-old woman from Spain won the €126,231,764 Euromillions jackpot.[1]
- Andrew J. Whittaker Jr. of West Virginia, who won $314.9 million in the Powerball drawing of December 25, 2002. Opting as most large prize winners in the U.S. do for the lump sum, his after-tax prize has was $114 million.
- Geraldine Williams from Lowell, Mass. is the largest single Mega Millions winner, at $294 million. The $168 million lump sum she opted for was reported as $117.6 million after taxes.
- Harold and Helen Lerner of New Jersey also claimed a higher after-tax lump sum than Whittaker in Mega Millions for the September 16, 2005 drawing, as New Jersey has no state tax on lottery prizes. They chose to receive $156 million in cash instead of the $258 million face value. Then there is a 25 percent federal withholding tax[citation needed], which left them with around $117 million.
- The October 19, 2005 Powerball drawing won by nine members of the West and Chaney families of Medford, Oregon was for a larger annuity ($340 million) but a smaller lump sum than Whittaker's.
- On February 22, 2008, Robert and Tayne Harris of Portal, Georgia claimed the only Mega Millions jackpot ticket, with an annuity value of $270 million (cash value $167 million) before taxes. After 25% percent federal withholding and 6% state withholding, they were left with around $115 million.
[edit] State lotteries
The record annuity-value prizes in the largest state lottery games in the United States have been:
- California: $193 million to three tickets February 16, 2002; to single winner, $141 million to Alex Matulas on June 23, 2001;
- New York: $130 million in special Millennium Millions game November 4, 2000, shared by two winners; to single winner, $100 million to Johnnie Ely in Millennium Millions of December 31, 1999;
- Pennsylvania: $115.6 million shared among 14 winning tickets in April 1989, in Super 7 game later discontinued after a scandal; in subsequent Super 6 game $86,192,222.20 in December 1999, claimed by Shemonski family in March 2000
- Florida: $106.5 million to six tickets in September 1990
- Texas: estimated $145 million June 19, 2004
- Ohio: $75 million April 13, 2002.
The ratio between lump sum and annuity value varies over time with interest rates and possible alterations in the length of the period for which payments are made.
[edit] Europe
Unlike in the United States, where lottery wins are taxed, and the full winnings are paid by an annuity over a period of many years or a reduced lump-sum amount is offered, European jackpots are generally tax-free (the lotteries themselves are taxed in other ways) and the winning jackpot is paid out immediately in one lump sum.
- EuroMillions is a pan-European lottery, with odds of 1 in 76,275,360 and a minimum jackpot of €15 million. In July 2005, housewife Dolores McNamara, a resident of Limerick, Ireland, won a tax-free lump sum of €115,436,126 ($139m) when she hit a nine-week rollover jackpot. On February 3, 2006, EuroMillions had a prize of €183 million ($219m), which was shared between three winning tickets, two in France and one in Portugal, each winning €61,191,026. In May 2009, a 25-year-old woman from Mallorca, Spain won a EuroMillions jackpot of €126,231,764. The jackpot had accumulated after rolling over for 7 consecutive draws.
- SuperEnalotto is a notable lottery in Italy. On October 23, 2008, the jackpot prize of €100,756,197.30 was won by a single ticket in Catania.
- German National Lottery biggest lottery winning of €37,600,000 was taken on the 7th of October 2006.
- Largest UK prize was hit on the 6th of January 1996 and totaled at GBP 42,000,000.
- The Irish National Lottery has a guaranteed jackpot of €2 million for each of its twice-weekly Lotto draws. The largest ever jackpot of €18,963,441 (US$29.7 million) was won on June 28, 2008 by a syndicate of sixteen work colleagues at a quarry and concrete plant in County Carlow.
