Lottery jackpot records

This is a collection of notable lottery jackpot records in the United States and Europe, listing the largest prizes/jackpots awarded in various drawings.

The January 13, 2016 U.S. Powerball drawing created the largest jackpot in world history; It had an annuity value of $1,586,400,000. (The next largest, a Mega Millions jackpot, was over $656,000,000).

Prior to 2016, Spain's Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad (Spanish Christmas Lottery) was generally considered to be the world's largest lottery game, with the largest first prize/jackpot. In 2012, the first prize was €720 million (then US$941.8 million). The total prize pool in 2012 was €2.52 billion (US$3.297 billion). The tickets for this drawing have pre-printed five-digit numbers, with each set of numbers sold multiple times in series. For example, a ticket with the number "00001" was printed 180 times under different series numbers. This results in the top prize being split by multiple winners. The 2011 top prize of €720 million was paid out as €4 million (US$5.2 million) to each of the 180 tickets with the number 58268.

All lottery winnings are subject to Federal taxation (automatically reported to the Internal Revenue Service if the win is at least $600); many smaller jurisdictions also levy taxes. The IRS requires a minimum withholding of 25% of the prize (minus the wager) of any gambling win in excess of $5,000. However, the net for a major prize often is misleading; winners often owe the IRS upon filing a return because the Federal withholding was below the winner's tax obligations. Nonresident U.S. lottery winners. have 30% of winnings of at least $600 withheld.

All lump-sum prizes listed below are reported as the pre-withholdings amount, as this is income the player "earned" and must report on their returns to be subject to taxation. Jackpot shares listed below are annuity amounts.

For various reasons, an annuitized jackpot can have a higher cash value than a larger annuity with a lower cash value. Examples include the annuity structure of various games: while Mega Millions' and Powerball's annuity option each are 30 annual payments, Mega Millions' annuity payments increase 5 percent yearly, while Powerball increases 4 percent yearly; this makes the Mega Millions' annuity structure somewhat more "inflated".