Excitement is ramping up among lottery players after the Powerball jackpocket reached $800m on Wednesday, the second-highest ever total in its history.
Only once has the Powerball jackpot exceeded this figure, when players from California, Florida and Tennessee shared the $1.6bn jackpot in January 2016 [ABC7].
Failure to match all six numbers in Wednesday’s drawing – the 36th of this sequence – ensured the current total surged past the previous second-highest jackpot of $768.4m in March 2019.
A number of tickets did match five numbers, though, including two from the California Lottery, winning more than $1.5m each.
The California Lottery has now sold more than 55.4 million tickets since this jackpot run began in early August, with nearly $15.2m in prizes produced for 2.1 million tickets in the state.
Furthermore, the California Lottery has already raised approximately $44.4m for public education in just 81 days from this Powerball sequence alone.
The lottery now stands to raise even more as the Powerball jackpot enters its 37th drawing this week, and interest in the game could intensify further as news of the lucrative prize on offer spreads.
However, as reported by CBNC, the exact amount a player takes home after matching all six numbers varies based on two payout options.
The first is a smaller lump sum that only includes money on hand from the sale of tickets for the drawing, which could work out as around half of the current jackpot.
The second option is the full jackpot amount paid out as an annuity over 30 years.
All winners must pay automatic federal withholding taxes of 24%, but it’s also likely that jackpot winners would be required to pay the top federal income tax rate of 37%, which would be owed against winnings when the 2022 tax return is filed.
Additionally, most states tax lottery winnings as income, with the state tax rate typically between 3% and 8%.
