This story was published more than 5 years ago.
On Tuesday night a player in South Carolina hit all six numbers on the Mega Millions lottery draw, taking home almost $1.6 billion in the process.
The winning player was the only one to hit all of the numbers, which were 5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and the Mega Ball 5. The winner has the choice to take an annuity payment of $1.537 billion over 30 years or take a lump sum payment of $877.8 million before taxes, which would be expected to cut the prize to "just" $553 million. The jackpot falls just short of being a record for a U.S. lottery jackpot, and gave the country lottery fever over the last week.
Whoever the big winner is was extremely lucky to hit the prize in South Carolina, as the state is one of eight that allows winners to remain anonymous. Other states require winners to reveal themselves, which can cause headaches as hangers-on begin reaching out to have money thrown their way.
In addition to the big winner, there were 36 million dollar winners, 419 $10,000 winners, and 15,750,013 overall winners that at least got their money back.
Speaking about the big win, Gordon Medenica, Lead Director of the Mega Millions Group and Director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming said, "The moment we've been waiting for finally arrived, and we couldn't be more excited. This is truly a historic occasion. We're so happy for the winner, and we know the South Carolina Education Lottery can't wait to meet the lucky ticket holder."
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Comments
Oh, this is a crazy amount. And it is even more surprising that it is the second highest in the record, hahaha 🙂 After paying tax over 30% and some fees, it would be still a life-changing win (or possibly can change a whole family's life for generations) 🙂
Great luck for the winner after all 🙂
Yeah, that winner is feeling like a billion bucks today. Good on them!
So what would you do: take the lump sum or the annuity?
My first reaction was that the annuity might make more sense as it could prevent you from losing everything through a bad investment or stupidity. So I looked up what you would expect to earn if you invested the lump sum vs the annuity. And the lump sum comes out far, far ahead. Here's a good Time article that compares the options.
The tax on the winnings is insane. Federal tax will cut the lump sum to $553m and then another 7% tax in South Carolina will mean the winner will get around $492m of the advertised "$1.6 billion" prize. If they took the annuity they would be expected to receive $856m over the 30 year period. But if they took the $492m lump sum, spent a bit, then invested $475m they could expect it to grow to over $2 billion in 30 years at an annual rate of 5%. It could be even more as the share market averages 8-9% long term.
So unless you are a degenerate spender or gambler who can't save a cent, the lump sum is the way to go. Even if you are there is probably some other way you could lock up the lump sum so that it is invested and only pays you a limited annual dividend.
3 sharpe, coolsongss, Lambino
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If I could safely throw some not so accepted words around, it would be while commenting on an article announcing a 1.6 billion dollar lotto winner, that is a massive number, congratulations to the winner, holy $%&£
I saw that the winner went to work trying to play it cool, but it didn't last long before he spilled the beans and left. 😂
sharpe
Bahahaha that's great, I guess it safe to say he wasn't a big fan of his job .
sharpe
Well, after all the calculations you've made Ed,(good mat by the way 👍 ) it's obvious that the lump should be the right choice..despite the fact the winner have to leave more than a billion on the table...that's insane.
But it's also a question of what kind of person you are as they wrote in the bottom of that article, Do you trust yourself enough for not spending most or everything in year or two time?
I'm not that type of a person so I'd take the lump and try to invest...you can't go against the numbers...and the simple logic says that nothing guarantees you'll live for the next 30 years too...right?
CL-Ed
Ha-ha..yeah really...we can't blame em I guess, wouldn't you do the same?
I would have gone against the lump sum before reading this, but I would make sure my kids and there kids and there kids are set right up as best as I could before I started spending anything. I'm so horrible with money sometimes that I would have to make sure the smart things are done first.
sharpe
Or do what I do now and that as soon as I get paid or get money, I give it to Stacey lol she pays the Bill's and makes sure there's food in the fridge and cupboards before anything else, she the responsible one out of the 2 of us lol
sharpe
Yeah, me too but we can't deny Ed's mathematics skills 🙂
LOL ,Yeah, there's have to be at least one Stacey in every house!
But to be serious at least one of the two have to be responsible with the money, isn't it!?!
I'm not exactly a spendthrift, not at all but glad my girlfriend isn't that too.
Some days sharpe, you can have her lol, no, no I'm kidding, she's great, sorry love just in case one day you read this xo , the gambling rules I have weren't just my own doing, she compromised with me with a budget, and a few simple rules, she mainly didnt want to be the one to take away no limit hold em from me, the slots luckily came in a package deal.
sharpe
Sounds like the winner needs to call Stacey for a planning and budgeting lesson before they claim the money. 😂
I read that the winner will most likely remain anonymous as South Carolina allows them to. That's what I would do, but apparently in other states they have to publicly disclose the winner's name. I get that they want to make it clear that everything is legit and reporting the winner shows it was actually won, but making it public could lead to all sorts of negative repercussions.
sharpe
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I agree with CL-Ed on that one, not the part about my girlfriend lol but remaining anonymous. With that amount of money, things could get very ugly in a hurry. Dreams come true turns into a Nightmare. Leave the lucky winner to his own, and let him and his family enjoy what they have won, and let them decide who and when the would like to tell.
sharpe
I can't believe how heavily taxed the winnings are, but even after taxes it's still an unbelievable sum of money to have won, I would need at least 6 months at some remote island to just get my head around what I am going to do with it
sharpe
Ha-ha-ha 😂 😂
Nice escape there in the end man...just in case.. 😉
lol,
😂 😂
You're killing me guys.
Yeah,completely agree with both of you guys.
Probably more than 20 years back...it was the first millions lotto winner here and after all the TV intertwines and noise about it, his teen daughter had been kidnapped for a ransom...so that's just an example of how all that could go into a nightmare..so hopefully he/she would choose the anonymity..if that's only up to them of course.