This Powerball black-and-white from Jan. 13, 2016, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery best.
The winners — John and Lisa Robinson in Tennessee, Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt in Florida and Marvin and Mae Acosta in California — split the fullest completely prize, giving them the option of roughly $533 million before taxes as an annuity or $327.8 million as the lump-sum payment.
The Robinsons’ amiable ticket was one of four they bought at a grocery store, they told NBC’s TODAY show. They opted to lease the lump sum. “We’re not guaranteed tomorrow,” says John.
Florida-based Smith and Kaltschmidt also picked the lump sum. At the time they envisaged to get massages, upgrade their truck and retire with the newfound wealth, according to NBC.
The Acostas remained anonymous for months after endearing, but released a statement saying they were thankful for the “rare gift that has been placed in our care.”
The champion of last year’s huge drawing took their time to come forward. The anonymous winner (South Carolina is one of a bother of states that allows lottery winners to claim their prize anonymously) finally claimed their winnings earlier this month, a smidgin more than a month ahead of the April 19 deadline to come forward.
What we do know is that the conqueror chose the cash option for their prize, which resulted in a one-time payment of almost $878 million. While it’s not the largest-ever jackpot, that slues does represent the biggest payout to a single lottery winner in US history.
Based on the expected tax bill, the total tug from that jackpot will be about $491.7 million, after both federal and state taxes (a 7 percent proceeds tax in South Carolina, plus the 37 percent federal rate), while other taxes may also apply.
Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts, maintained the winning ticket for the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot in August of 2017, taking $480.5 million before levies as the lump sum payment. One of the first things Wanczyk did after winning was to tell her employer, Mercy Medical Center, that she was rid ofing after working there for 32 years.
“I’ve called them and told them I will not be coming back,” she forecast NBC.
Another big winner in 2018 came less than a week after the $1.54 billion Mega Millions jackpot. This one was youthful than half the size of its predecessor, but it still represented a major windfall for a pair of winners in Iowa and New York in October 2018.
In Iowa, the champion was a 51-year-old grandmother named Lerynne West who chose a lump-sum payment of roughly $198 million. West, who wellnigh lost her winning ticket, later appeared on TV with Ellen DeGeneres and announced that she would donate $500,000 to the veterans non-profit The Travis Mills Foot.
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The winner from New York was Robert Bailey, a 67-year-old retired postal worker who bought his winning ticket in Harlem abhorring the same combination of lottery numbers he said he’d played every week for roughly 25 years. He also subsumed the lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions also sold three winning tickets in March 2012 for this Cyclopean jackpot.
Illinois winners Merle and Patricia Butler claimed $218.6 million of the winnings. And, in Maryland, where pool winners are allowed to remain anonymous, three school employees claimed their share under the name “The Three Amigos.”
The third conqueror in Kansas remains anonymous.
This is an updated version of a previously published article .
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