Powerball Jackpot Creating Big Stir, Big Dreams
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The record high Powerball jackpot is now up to $550 million.
The numbers are an estimate, so the jackpot could get even bigger as tonight's drawing gets closer.
There's now about a 75 percent chance that the winning combination of numbers will be drawn.
Around the metro, some locations had cashiers taking in $200 every 10 minutes.
That's lot of Powerball tickets. In fact, the Minnesota lottery said they expect sales to be a record.
But if you choose the lump sum, winners take in only $360 million.
So, where does the rest go?
In Minnesota, 64 cents of it go toward the Powerball jackpot winnings.
And 36 cents will go to pay out the other game prizes.
Another 36 cents will go to Minnesota's general fund to pay for things such as education and healthcare.
Another 24 cents pay for a natural resource fund, a game and fish fund, and an environmental fund, which sponsors dozens of projects across the state.
The final 40 cents is split between retailers, lottery administration and vendors.
Then there's the taxes.
In Minnesota, the minimum tax rate is 32.5 percent -- 25 percent of it is federal, and 7.5 percent of it is state.
That leaves the winner with a cool $244 million.
