The electrifying moment of winning a colossal jackpot comes with certain responsibilities and decisions that shoulder the unexpected win. This article will take you through the crucial steps and sage advice for those fortunes enough to secure a substantial Mega Millions or Powerball Jackpot.
After winning big Powerball Jackpot , anyone should think, What’s now?
No question winning the Powerball or Mega Millions will change your life. But if you do happen to be the one person out of every 300 million who gets the lucky ticket, there are some rules you need to follow after you claim your prize.
One Powerball ticket winner gets $1.08 billion Paid for in Los Angeles
Powerball and Mega Millions are both American lotteries that are played all over the country. The games are very different, but the rules that winners must follow are pretty much the same for both. Different lottery jurisdictions have different rules about how to claim the win and what to do after it has been claimed.
Carolyn Becker, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery, told PEOPLE that she “can’t think of a single difference between those two multi-games in terms of how a winner claims their prize.” Laws do “vary state to state,” though she makes sure to say that.
One example is that some lottery winners can stay mostly anonymous, while others have to give out more personal information. The Mega Millions and Powerball websites say that public reveal laws vary by state. Winners should check with the lottery in their area to find out what the rules are.
Read further to find out the craziest things that people who win the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot have to do.
Quick win in Powerball Jackpot
If you win the jackpot, you have to take your winning ticket to the lotto store and show it to the worker.
“The gaming system keeps track of where the winning combination was sold,” Becker says from downtown Los Angeles, where the most recent Powerball winner bought their ticket. No secret there. The store where the winning ticket was sold is very well known, but we don’t know who got it.
People who win the jackpot have to claim their prize in the same state where they bought the winning ticket.
The Mega Millions website says that games can be bought at lottery stores and through lottery dealers in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Different lotteries sell Mega Millions, so winning tickets must be claimed in the state where they were bought.
Jackpot winners can choose between two ways to cash in their Mega Millions prize. They can cash in their winning ticket at a lottery store near them, or, based on where the lottery is held, they can claim it by mail.
But the person who just won big would travel to the place rather than just dropping a mail. Only that makes sense, right?
The same is true for Powerball. Prizes must be claimed in the same place where the lucky ticket was bought. But where exactly in the area of jurisdiction rests on the prize that was won?
“Players can usually get their prize, which is up to $600, at any licensed lottery store in the area where they bought the ticket.” The website for the game says that prizes worth more than $600 can be claimed at some lottery offices and also at the main office of the lottery, based on the amount.
Claim it before you lose it.
Jackpot winners have a certain number of days to claim their prize. Some people wait too long to cash in their winning ticket, which is hard to understand. There is a rule for those who break it. Mega Millions and Powerball both have a set time to file a claim, but the length of time changes by state.
Mega Millions and Powerball websites announced that ticket expiration dates range from 90 days to a year after the draw date, based on where the tickets were bought. Often, the date that the ticket expires is written on the back of each one.
Vital decision
Those who win the jackpot have to decide how they’re going to get the prize money, either in a lump sum or in smaller portions at regular intervals. When jackpot winners turn in their tickets, they have two choices for how they want to claim their prize. However, the rules for each claim change from state to state. Winners of the Powerball jackpot can get their prize in 30 payments for 30 years, or they can get it all at once in cash.
Powerball says that the cash value choice is “the amount of money that needs to be in the jackpot prize pool on the day of the drawing to fund the estimated jackpot annuity prize.” “The advertised jackpot annuity and cash value are estimates until ticket sales are final, and for the annuity until the Multi-State Lottery Association takes bids on the purchase of securities.”
For Mega Millions prize winners, the ways to get their money are the same. They have to pick between getting money once a year or getting cash.
The annuity choice “includes a first payment every year, followed by 29 payments every year after that.” The Mega Millions website says that each payment is 5% bigger than the last one. You can choose to get cash, which is a one-time payment equal to the Mega Millions big prize pool in cash.
If jackpot winners don’t cash in their winnings before the due date, they lose the money.
If there is a prize that remains unclaimed or is never paid out, it would be classified as unclaimed. If a jackpot reward remains unclaimed within the designated time limit, the lottery authority retains the funds and allocates the proceeds for various purposes.
The Mega Millions game will recoup the entirety of the funds that the state contributed to the unclaimed jackpot. However, the Powerball funds must be reimbursed to all lotteries following their sales for the draw period.
The Powerball website states that the lotteries disperse the funds according to their jurisdiction’s legislation, either to other lottery games, their jurisdiction’s general fund, or as mandated by law.
Regarding California, Becker states that the reward would be directly allocated to our public school fund. It is somewhat melancholy for the lottery when such situations occur, as we are displeased to witness winners not receiving the prize money. However, on the other hand, it is an immense victory for schools.
Multiple wins
If more than one ticket wins the jackpot, the winners must split the prize.
The prize for Mega Millions and Powerball big winners must be split if more than one ticket wins. Also, if more than one person bets on the same winning ticket, the pot must be split between the winners when the prizes are claimed.
“We always tell people who want to play as a group to really make sure you have a plan and trust the people you’re playing with.
And when a group win occurs, there exists a plan. Hopefully, they’ve already been adults and talked about how that will work with each other.
In some places, jackpot winners have to say who they are and where they belong, like state, country, and region.
Lottery officials need to know specific personal information about people who win tickets to make sure the winners are allowed to play and to follow other law requirements.
Becker stated that, in California, lottery players’ names are part of public records. When there’s a winner, and that person has been vetted and officially declared a winner, they will make sure to announce it.
“It’s only their name in California that’s out there. Not their age, not their race … not where they live,” she states. That’s not part of the public record, only their name.
Meanwhile, Becker says her group “always encourages them to share how they feel with the public because it’s such a fun, humanizing story when there’s a winner.” “But most of the time, they politely decline,” she says. They’re happy, but they don’t want that much attention. “And that makes perfect sense.”
Those who have won the jackpot have to go through an interview process before they can get the big prize. Becker tells PEOPLE that they don’t call people “winners” when they “submit a claim” because “sometimes bad actors submit a claim who is not the rightful winner.”
From Becker’s point of view, the process is pretty simple: “There are things that only the winner knows.” For instance, players know if they chose their numbers or ones that were made by a machine.
“Our computers know that, but the public doesn’t know that only the winner does,” Becker says. “That has to come up in the interview with the big winner, and that’s helpful for our team to protect the legitimacy of the game.”
To conclude
After clinching the life-altering Powerball jackpot, winners must navigate a set of rules that decide their next steps. It is important to understand that the thrill of a jackpot win comes with responsibilities and intricacies that demand careful navigation for a better transition that the newfound fortune gives. It is equally important to remember that one must approach big luck with a clear mind, ensuring loAng-term financial security and well-being.
