Even though the chances of winning a lottery are at an absolute minimum, we can see that the popularity of these games doesn’t decline for a high number of years. Many people expect to resolve all of their problems by investing a small amount of money on a ticket of this sort. We can see that billions of people are participating in some kind of lottery, either private or national. Naturally, the percentage of players who actually won some prize money on the lottery is far lower than 0.5%.
When you think about it, and how many players are participating in these games, the prize money, you can be sure that there is a reason why this happens so rarely. When it comes to the biggest lottery payout ever, it happened back in 2018. Lottoland winner scooped €90 million Eurojackpot. This fact was recognized by Guinness World Records who proclaimed it the biggest online gambling payout in the world. We are pretty sure that hopes weren’t so high at the moment a bet was placed. However, you never know before you actually win it.
There are so many people in the world that won it big on lotteries. We are going to talk about some of the biggest lottery wins of all time.
$1.58 Billion
Back in 2016, three different tickets won the biggest prize of them all. Three families, Kaltschmidts from Florida, Robinsons from Tennessee, and Acostas from California won $533 million each, which was around $327.8 after tax. Firstly, we are going to talk about Robinsons. Even though they’ve managed to win a life-changing amount of money, they preferred to continue living their modest way of life. Naturally, they have a $6 million home that includes a private lake. Their home has a couple of bathrooms and a home theater.
However, Lisa Robinson claimed that she will continue to work even though she doesn’t need to do it. Kaltschmidts are still playing the Powerball and they continued to live their modest life. They still live in the same home as they’ve used to. Also, they don’t appear in the public and there is almost nothing known about them besides the fact that they won the lottery. The only thing known for certain is that they bought a new SUV and a $90,000 Tesla. Acostas didn’t claim their prize until a year and a half after they won it. None of them appeared publicly since they decided to remain completely anonymous.
$758 Million
In 2017, Mavis Wanczyk from the state of Massachusetts won an exceptional $758 million on Powerball. After tax, she received $480 million. This amount is bigger than the prize money won by three families just a year ago. Mavis worked at a Mercy Medical Center for more than three decades. After she won Powerball, she quit her job and started working in different lines of work. Little is known about Mavis and her activities after she won this prize since she decided to remain away from the public. She appeared just once when she claimed her prize. Since then, we don’t have any information about her.
$687 Million
In 2018, we’ve witnessed that two cards were drawn as winning ones, and Robert Bailey and Lerynne West split $687 million. Bailey, from New York, was ecstatic with his winnings and he said that he will stay a regular Powerball player in the future. West, who is from a small town in the center of Iowa, called Redfield, said that she lost her ticket at one moment. Thankfully, it was found in one of the trucks, so, she was able to claim her prize money. She immediately retired from her job and founded a charity. She said that she isn’t interested in working, besides charity work, and that she is looking forward to trying out new vehicles and traveling for a really long time.
$656 Million
Back in 2012, we also had two winning tickets. One of these was claimed by Patricia and Merle from Red Bud, Illinois. At first, they were skeptical about claiming their price due to the vast publicity. They waited for about a month before they come forward. The couple said that they are interested in buying a new vehicle and to visit locations in the world that they are interested in. The second card was claimed by three anonymous persons who called themselves “The Three Amigos”.
These three personas worked in the educational system. All of them retired from their positions and decided that they want to spend the rest of their lives traveling and enjoying. They even joked that they are going to get tattoos of the winning numbers. These three combined 60 different tickets at the moment they’ve won the ultimate prize. There is nothing more known about them.
$648 Million
We can see that two winning tickets on a Powerball are some sort of pattern, right? Now seriously, this situation also happened back in 2013 when Ira Curry and Steve Tran claimed their prizes. Ira was from Stone Mountain, Georgia. She said that her combination of numbers was created out of family birthdays and her lucky number, seven. Steve Tran was a delivery truck driver, who bought a couple of tickets at the moment. He didn’t realize he won the prize at the beginning. A couple of hours after, he discovered that he is a millionaire.
$590 Million
The only ticket that claimed the prize in 2013’s Powerball came from the State of Florida. The person that won the prize was Gloria MacKenzie. This lady had a pretty massive amount of luck since she bought only two cards and she managed to win on one of them.
The Bottom Line
Winning at a lottery is so rare that many people presume it never happens. However, we can see that there are some examples of people winning a significant amount of money just by investing a little amount of money into tickets. Naturally, this is not something that brings the ultimate comfort due to the amount of publicity that you’re going to attract. So, staying anonymous is probably the best thing you can do.
