The 10 Largest U.S. Lottery Jackpots Awarded Up 'Til Today
(AP) -- The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night's drawing will be an estimated $1.5 billion — the largest lottery jackpot in the world.
It's so large that even Canadians are getting into the act, traveling across the border in hopes of becoming the next billionaire. The bad news for them is that they can expect to pay more taxes if they win.
Not that there aren't large jackpots elsewhere. Spain's massively popular Christmas lottery, known as "El Gordo," is ranked as the world's richest, though it doles out a single jackpot among millions of prizes, instead of one large jackpot like the Powerball. El Gordo last month showered 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) across the country.
As for the U.S., here's a look at the 10 previous highest jackpots and the winners' home states:
01. $656.0 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (three tickets, from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland)
02. $636 million, Mega Millions, Dec. 17, 2013, (two tickets, from California and Georgia)
03. $590.5 million, Powerball, May 18, 2013 (one ticket, from Florida)
04. $587.5 million, Powerball, Nov. 28, 2012 (two tickets, from Arizona and Missouri)
05. $564.1 million, Powerball, Feb. 11, 2015 (three tickets, from North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas)
06. $448.4 million, Powerball, Aug. 7, 2013, (three tickets, one from Minnesota and two from New Jersey)
07. $425.3 million, Powerball, Feb. 19, 2014 (one ticket, from California)
08. $414 million, Mega Millions, March 18, 2014, (two tickets, from Florida and Maryland)
09. $399.4 million, Powerball, Sept. 18, 2013, (one ticket, from South Carolina)
10. $390.0 million, Mega Millions, March 6, 2007 (two tickets, from Georgia and New Jersey)
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