A Winner's Worry: Lottery-winning reality check
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - So...you didn't win the big one.
Someone in California won Powerball's big jackpot of over $2 billion.
There was also a big Mega Millions drawing last night and another Powerball drawing tonight.
So, what is your play-or-don't-play threshold?
It wasn't all that long ago when a lottery game reached $100 million and lines formed to buy tickets. Now, $150 million barely draws a yawn.
"When jackpots get to the three, four, or 500 million range, we really start to see an uptick in sales," said Drew Svitko, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Lottery. "Anything over that and sales grow very dramatically."
This is good for business because it brings in new players and it doesn't happen by accident, over time, balls have been added and the cost of a play doubled.
"We manage that game in an effort to give players what they want - which are big jackpots more frequently," Svitko said.
Despite many stories saying the contrary, Svitko said that not every lottery winner ends up ruined or cursed.
"I think I think what is actually happening is those are the stories you hear about," he said. "You don't hear about the people who invest the money and use it wisely and help a whole lot of people."
Now, let's say you have a winning ticket. What are the next steps?
"First thing you should do is sign the back of your ticket," Svitko explained. "It's what proves that [it's] yours, should it fall into somebody else's hands. They should put it somewhere very safe. And then if it's a big prize, seek financial help [and] seek guidance from professionals who are used to advising people on how to deal with large sums of money."
Tonight's Powerball drawing, now that the monster jackpot is gone, is $20 million, which compared to $2 billion, seems like a small amount of money.
"It does, for whatever reason $20 million doesn't sound like a lot of money, but it does to me, that's a lot of money," Svitko said.
A couple of things to finish up here - first, Pennsylvania law requires the lottery to release the name, amount, and location of all winners. From there, you'll have a year to claim your prize and that prize is subject to state and federal taxes.
Expect about a third to go to the government.
Lastly, if you take the annuity, that's the jackpot spread evenly over 30 years, right?
Not exactly. You get an initial check and then for the next 29 years, each check grows by five percent. Meaning the later checks wind up much larger than the first but patience is required.
