A lot of people are dreaming of a jackpot in one of the lotteries and to become carefree and secured, but the odds are not very high, aren’t they? Though lucky people still exist, they won multimillion jackpots and now spend those huge sums for their pleasure.
Winning is the successful end of the game, as a result, you get some prize. In lotteries, it can be either large cash prize of the prime tier, they are also called jackpots, or a secondary prize — smaller amounts of money or even household appliances, it depends on the lottery.
Lottery drawings are held all over the world, and every country has its own conditions for them, respectively, the number of winnings are also significantly different in different countries. It’s quite understandable, the more advanced country and the larger number of regular players, the more money for prize funds lottery has. In less developed countries, people don’t play much, so the prize money is usually insignificant. Nowadays, the popularity also counts, because you can participate in absolutely any lottery anywhere the drawings are held via the Internet.
Lottery Jackpot Records
Nobody knows what it takes to win a jackpot, maybe you need to be born a lucky person, or you just need to believe in your success.
Lottery winners are just like you and me — some ordinary people. Some of them paid off their debts and became rich, while others, on the contrary, behaved so carelessly that they spent absolutely all money for nothing, dumping down the drain everything they had like they were cursed with the won money.
And we don’t know every story about lottery winners, because not everyone likes to have a buzz around his name, attracting the unnecessary attention of curious people and criminals among them. But it is true: sometimes winning a lottery brings to a person nothing but problems, disputes and quarrels with relatives, envy from neighbors and friends. It is our life!
- The biggest prize in Europe is 185 million euro won in the popular EuroMillions lottery. It happened in the summer of 2011. The ticket was purchased by a lucky man in Scotland.
- In the fall of 2012 in Australia, a 112 million Australian dollars won in the famous lottery Oz Lotto was divided equally among 4 winners.
- Just on the New Year’s Eve, on the last day of 2010, in Brazil, 4 participants won 195 million reals in the Mega Sung lottery. This amount is still a record in South America.
- The Asian largest jackpot is the sum of over 700 million pesos, won by a lucky man in the late autumn of 2010 in the Grand Lotto draw (6 out of 55), the event happened in the Philippines.
Biggest US Lottery Winnings
The biggest jackpots are won in the United States, the richest country in the world. There are two of the country's most popular lotteries — Mega Millions and Powerball, and their multi-million-dollar jackpots are known all over the planet.
However, the taxation on winnings in this country is also the highest. Therefore, a certain amount of money won in the lottery in the US would be withdrawn as a tax. Sometimes people actually win millions but could have only hundreds of thousands as the prize.
There are two options for a lottery winner: to take the entire won amount at once, but minus 30-40% withdrawn as the taxes, or to have all won money transferred partially monthly for many years (20-30).
The most famous US winnings are:
- Some Colombian migrant named Juan Rodriguez worked as an ordinary parking guard until in 2004 he won 149 million dollars in the Mega Millions lottery. A man bought the ticket for the last dollar he had, and it was a lucky one. After he paid all taxes, he got only 59 million. But that was not the final loss. Rodriguez's ex-wife sued him for half the amount and won. The man was desperate and even developed mental disorders. After a while, he hired specialists to help him to manage his money. Only after that, Juan could enjoy the life, which due to the money he had, was not bad after all.
- The next famous win was also in Mega Millions, two years later, in 2006. In Virginia, some guy bought gas for his car and a ticket. The prize was 230 million. The gas station personnel, which sold the lucky ticket to the man, was also awarded.
- Two years later, at the very beginning of 2008, a pensioner in Missouri, a veteran of the Second World War, got his luck finally. An 84-year-old man won 254 million in Powerball. Almost all the money went to his children and grandchildren.
- In 2004, a resident of Massachusetts took the grand prize of 209 million. But we still know nothing about him.
- In 2002, Jack Whittaker was a well-doing owner of the construction business in West Virginia. He didn’t need money but was pleasantly surprised to the jackpot of 170 million in Powerball. However, this amount was significantly reduced by the taxes, still, he got 114 million in cash. Not bad. Jack was a generous man: he founded an organization to support the disadvantaged, donated more than 1.5 million to Christian churches, and gave a million to the girl who sold him the lucky ticket. Nevertheless, now Jack is poor and deprived of his family, money didn’t bring him happiness since after gaining a considerable prize, tragedies and troubles began to occur in his life. He was robbed of large sums of money, his granddaughter, addicted to drugs, died of an overdose two weeks after her young man was found dead in her house. A few years later, his whole house was robbed, later his single daughter died. Jack got addicted to gambling and went bankrupt. So now Jack thinks the won money was cursed.
- In 2005 the Cheney family from Oregon won a prize of 340 million in the Powerball Lottery. The husband, wife, their daughter and her spouse spent 40 dollars on buying tickets and they won the jackpot. The 68-year-old woman was stunned and slightly frightened by such a lot of money, until her husband bought her a yellow Hammer she dreamed for a long time.
- In 2000 two lucky winners won a jackpot of $ 360 million in Mega Millions. After they paid state taxes the winners got 90 million each. One of them told there were no change in the store so he was offered lottery tickets, one of which was a lucky one.
- Syndicates also play the lottery and got lucky. 8 people from Nebraska were working at an ordinary meat factory and regularly played Powerball. In 2005 took they won the amount of 365 million.
- In 2007, the Mega Millions jackpot reached an incredible at that time sum of 390 million, all tickets were sold almost instantly. The winners were an ordinary truck driver from Georgia, who bought a ticket at a grocery store, and a family from New Jersey. Lucky them!
- In November 2012, the jackpot broke the world record — 580 million. It was won and shared by Hills, a married couple from Arizona, who had been troubled financially for a long time, and a Missouri resident.
- One of the record jackpots with the amount of 590 million was won in the Powerball Lottery in May 2013 by an elderly woman from Florida, Gloria McKenzie. An 84-year-old woman bought a ticket in an ordinary supermarket and learned about her victory by watching the broadcast on television. However, the wise old lady did not immediately call the organizers to notify them of her winnings, first of all, she went to consult her lawyer and soon took the entire amount immediately, which after the withdrawn of state taxes was about 390 million. It is the largest sum won by a single winner in the world.
- Next on the list of the biggest cash prizes is the jackpot Mega Millions of 648 million, which was shared by two lucky winners from Georgia and California. This event took place in December 2013. One of the winners Steve Tran was an ordinary truck driver, he bought the ticket in San Jose, where he was on vacation with his family. He played the lottery regularly, and in 2013 he won the jackpot. Lucky bastard!
- The big Mega Millions jackpot of 640 million in 2012 was divided equally by the three winners.
- However, the most impressive jackpot was won on January 13, 2016. The Powerball jackpot reached 1,586,000,000 dollars, the world has never seen such a prize before! The three winners from California, Florida and Tennessee divided the prize. And the stores were awarded, where the lucky tickets were purchased.
Maybe, it is not all the most famous and biggest winnings around the world, but the most reliable of them. Anyone can become a lucky lottery winner, just tune in to positive things and believe in your own luck.
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