The Biggest Lottery Wins Of All Time

Many of us dream of winning the lottery and may wonder what we would do with a few million to be able to spend. However, some people have been lucky enough to win so much money that you cannot even comprehend how you would begin to spend that amount. Some of the biggest lottery wins in history are listed below:

13th January 2016

The biggest lottery win in history came on this date when the jackpot of the Powerball lottery in the United States reached a staggering $1.6 billion. The prize was shared between three tickets which were purchased in California, Florida and Tennessee. The winners were able to choose whether to receive their prize as a cash lump sum, or to receive 30 annual payments which is made up of the balance and the interest that has accumulated on it over the years.

18th May 2013

The biggest lottery jackpot that was won by a single ticket was won on this date by Gloria MacKenzie of Florida. She won on a quick pick ticket after someone had let her in front of them in the queue to buy this ticket. Her total prize was a little over $590 million. She claimed the lump sum prize as at 84 years old she claimed she did not see the point of having payments for the next thirty years. This jackpot was also on the Powerball lottery.

Few other lotteries around the world reach the jackpots that players in the United States get to experience. This is simply because there are more people living in the United States than any other country in the world and therefore more tickets are sold. Other lotteries put a cap on their jackpots which mean that once they reach a certain level the prize money is shared between the other prize tiers. The two biggest lotteries in the United States - Powerball and Mega Millions - do not have this cap and the jackpot will just keep growing until it is won.

That being said there are examples of large jackpot wins elsewhere in the world, particularly in Europe and some of these are listed below.

Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad

The jackpot in this lottery in Spain reached€720 million in 2012 but the way that this lottery works means that players do not actually get a large payout. Each ticket has a five digit number and these numbers are sold in several different series. For this jackpot there were 180 different series sold which meant that when the number was drawn there were 180 winners who all won€4 million each.

Euromillions

This lottery is ran in a number of different countries in Europe and the prize money from all ticket sales is combined to make the prize fund. Jackpots of€190 million have been won on three separate occasions in this lottery and they have all been won by single ticket holders. Two of these winners lived in the UK and the third was from Portugal. In the UK you can buy online lottery tickets which makes it a simple process. One winner from the UK will become a millionaire in every draw of this lottery.