ANKARA – The Powerball jackpot in the US has climbed to a record USD1.9 billion and will be up for grabs at Monday night's drawing.
The prize has been climbing since Aug. 3 and now ranks as the largest lottery amount in US history.
The latest amount has been snowballing through thrice-weekly drawings since Aug. 3, when a ticket in the state of Pennsylvania hit more than a USD206 million jackpot.
If someone is lucky enough to hit all six numbers, the jackpot ticket leaves them with two options -- taking USD1.9 billion as an annuity spread over three decades or receiving a sum of USD929 million in cash.
Hitting all six numbers in a single ticket for the Powerball jackpot has the probability of 1 in 292 million, while tickets cost USD2 per play.
The winner also has to deal with taxes under various options and based on various state laws.
There is a 24 percent federal tax for the cash option, which would trim the USD929 million by USD223 million, leaving the winner with USD706 million.
The annuitized option, on the other hand, would be taxed based on that year's current rates.
In addition, there are state taxes, ranging from zero percent to over 10 percent depending on the state and whether it taxes lottery winnings or not.
The biggest prize ever won by a single ticket in the US came in the October 2018 Mega Millions drawing that stood at USD1.5 billion at the time, with the winner in South Carolina opting for a cash prize of more than USD877 million.
In Powerball, a prize of over USD768 million in March 2019 went to a single winner in Wisconsin. In January 2016, three winners saw a jackpot of almost USD1.6 billion divided among themselves. (Anadolu)
