Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot has grown to a world record 1.5 billion
The lump sum will “only” pad your pockets with $930 million, before taxes.
Powerball is sold in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Rollo Redburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Lottery, said with such a huge jackpot on the lines, even with all the taxes, Oklahomans are stepping up to the line and buying the Powerball tickets in record numbers.
The next Powerball drawing for the estimated $1.5 BILLION dollar jackpot will be 10:59 p.m. Wednesday. Many Pennsylvanians are dreaming of how they would spend a Powerball jackpot, which is now at a record $1.5 billion.
There have been several winners in the last few drawings of $1 million and $2 million prizes, including in Maryland and Virginia.
Before you turn that winning ticket in, financial experts say to make sure you’re doing what you can to protect yourself.
Even if you could deploy an army of people to buy all those tickets for you, it’s still extremely unlikely that you’d be able to buy every ticket.
The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m.
A victor would have the option of being paid $1.5 billion through annual payments over 29 years or opting for one smaller cash payment.
For example, in the past two years, Missouri and Tennessee have each been home to three Powerball jackpot winners, while NY, the nation’s fourth most populous state, has only had one victor during that span. It’s the largest lottery prize ever offered in the world that can be won with a single ticket.
Massachusetts Lottery retailers were churning out over $23,000 in Powerball sales per minute, according to state lottery officials. But the group was only able to purchase 2.4 million of the 7 million combinations before time ran out.
Forbes magazine notes that you can expect to pay tens of millions in American taxes, should you win Powerball.
“It was like only 500 people who missed it by one number”, Collins said.