The most notable lotto wins of all time and the tech side to it all

Biggest jackpot and lotto wins of all time

We don’t think anybody hasn’t thought about what they would do if they won the lotto.

Although many people will never experience it, a small portion of gamblers have managed to scoop the biggest prize of all. Any lotto prize is a big win, but today we’ll be going above that and looking at the most notable lotto wins of all time.

We aren’t going to single out one region or one particular type of lotto – we’ll simply be making today’s selection on the amount alone, and some of these prize amounts surprised us.

The internet has helped expand the size of the worldwide lotto industry, and although it has always been popular, now that you can do everything conveniently from your phone, it has opened ways to bet on the lotto to a broader spectrum.

It hasn’t benefited just in this aspect; you can also view the latest lotto results, check out lotto numbers from around the world and explore how other lottos work in different countries. Before the advent of the internet, you would have to wait to read the lotto results in the newspaper if you missed the draw on television.

United States lotto

Wins in the United States dominate the biggest lotto prizes; Europe’s most significant win is just over 300 million euros, which one lucky player in Italy scooped in the first half of 2023. However, this wouldn’t even crack the top 10 biggest wins from around the globe, and all of the biggest lotto wins come courtesy of the US lotto.

Unlike many other lotto competitions, the American lotto is subject to stringent tax laws, with some of the biggest winners paying hundreds of millions of dollars in tax.

In countries like the United Kingdom, people who win huge prizes aren’t taxed on their winnings. However, they are subject to income tax on any money they make from interest payments resulting from their savings.

Therefore, although some US prizes are in the hundreds of millions, once all the fees and taxes are deducted, many are left with less than some of the biggest winners in European lottos. However, we won’t get too caught up in the specifics; today’s selections are based solely on the advertised prizes and their respective winners.

South Carolina – 2018

Some lotto competitions have a set of incentives for winners to come forward, mainly because it provides advertising opportunities for their competition. However, in 2018 in South Carolina, one lucky gambler hit all the numbers and scooped a prize of just over $1.5 billion. This is the third-highest prize ever paid out, but it wasn’t claimed immediately.

It took a few months for the winner to come forward, and when they finally did, they did so through their lawyer, opted for a lump sum and remained anonymous.

Sticking to your lucky numbers is a superstition that many people swear by. Still, the chances of a row of numbers coming out in numerical order are just as likely as any other combination of numbers.

The lucky trio

As we turned the clock back a little further, 2016 saw three separate participants land every number on their bet. The incredible main prize of $1.586 billion was the second-highest prize of all time in the United States (and worldwide) and the lucky winners were located in Florida, Tennessee and California.

While the winners might have had some element of jealousy that they didn’t scoop the top prize for themselves, half a billion dollars each isn’t an amount to complain about, either. Despite this prize being split across three tickets, each individual received more money than the highest-ever European lotto winner has ever won.

This should give you some idea of just how much more significant the Powerball lotto prize is in the United States compared to other regions across the globe.

The biggest lotto win of all time

In November 2022, another Californian won the main prize on the lotto, and it remains, to this day, the largest ever individual mount won in a lotto game anywhere in the world. Edwin Castro landed the $2.04 billion prize but chose to release only his name and keep the rest of his identity private.

We suspect if this record is surpassed sometime, then there’s a high chance it will be via the US Powerball. Although the EuroMillions European lotto has a considerable prize, none of its biggest winners even come close to the top 10, and we can’t imagine that will change anytime soon, given the gulf in the amounts of the prizes.

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