How Much of the $1.8B Does the Texas Powerball Winner Get to Keep?

Have you ever thought what life would be like if you never had to work a day in your life again? To be honest, it sounds like freedom to me. Imagine working a job you like rather than working for a paycheck!

Texas Powerball Winner

Anyways, a lottery winner in Texas was able to have that very question answered after drawing the winning Powerball numbers for a whopping $1.8 BILLION payout.

That's $1,800,000,000, just so you know...

Unfortunately, Powerball jackpots span multiple states, so it wasn't just a Texan who won. Someone from Missouri also drew the same winning Powerball ticket with the numbers 11-23-44-61-62, where 17 was the Powerball number.

How Much does the Texas Powerball Winner Get to Keep?

You may be wondering about how much of these winnings are taken out for tax purposes. Well, if the Texas winner chooses a cash amount of their half, then they would be left with $410.3 million after taxes.

If, however, they choose an annuity, meaning they get a certain amount every year, they are looking at a rough total of $893 million dollars spread across 29 years with a 5% increase each year as well.

Even split in two, this lottery winning is a massive payout. In fact, it took the number two spot on the list of highest lottery winnings ever won in America. Here is the full list of the top 10 winning amounts, according to AP News:

• #10 - $1.269B won in North Carolina
• #9 - $1.326B won in Oregon
• #8 - $1.337B won in Chicago
• #7 - $1.348B won in Maine
• #6 - $1.537B won in South Carolina
• #5 - $1.586B won in LA, Florida, and Tennessee
• #4 - $1.602B won in Florida
• #3 - $1.765B won in California
• #2 - $1.8B won in Texas and Missouri
• #1 - $2.04B won in LA

What Are the Odds of Winning the Lottery?

Before you grab your rainy-day cash and sprint on down to the nearest gas station, keep in mind that the odds of winning a prize from a scratch-off ticket are about 1 in 25. Matching all five white balls for a million-dollar prize is about 1 in 11,700,000.

Oh, and for the Powerball winning numbers? Those odds are about one in 292 million...