Some of the biggest ever Lottery wins
“If I won the lottery I’d do…” Ever heard that phrase before? Chances are pretty much everybody has, because winning the lottery is pretty much the only universally possible way that any one of us could turn into a millionaire overnight. Lottery wins at things like Euromillions or the National Lottery is a dream to many of us, which is why billions of people around the world rush to get their lottery numbers in every single week.
Unfortunately, however, the odds of winning a lottery are outrageously small, and most people don’t end up winning anything, even after thousands of lottery number guesses. People can often wonder whether its possible to predict the lottery numbers, and we’ll point you in the direction of this article for an answer [is it possible to accurately predict lottery numbers].
Regardless, there is always going to be someone who gets lucky with their lottery numbers and ends up winning a mammoth lottery jackpot. At Winzum we’ve compiled a few of the largest below…
$1.537 billion lottery jackpot
Yep, you read that right. A $1.537 billion lottery jackpot. What a truly outrageous amount of money to win off of your lottery numbers, eh? This prize went to an anonymous Mega Millions player in North Carolina, who was crowned as the recipient of the biggest lottery pay-out to single person in American and world history.
The lucky lottery winner chose to take the full amount in one lump sum, however rather annoyingly after tax it came too $491.7 million, which is less than a third. Still though, cannot complain after a lottery win like that, can you?
€2.4 billion lottery jackpot
Avid global lottery fans may well have heard of the Spanish Christmas Lottery, known as “Extraordinario de Navidad” or simply “El Gordo” (meaning The Fat One). This lottery takes place on the 22nd of December each and every year, and it is often referred to as the biggest lottery in the world by total jackpot prize amount.
Last year’s El Gordo jackpot was a crazy €2.4 billion, however the catch with this lottery is that the prize is spread across various winners.
$1.586 billion lottery jackpot
The largest lottery jackpot win to date was through the American Powerball lottery back in 2016, where the overall lottery prize amount clocked in at a truly bonkers $1.586 billion. Unlike our first example with the anonymous North Carolina lottery winner, this jackpot was split between three different couples.
With lottery jackpots like this you can start to see why the phrase “if I won the lottery” is so popular…
£161 million lottery jackpot
Most of the largest lottery jackpot prizes have come from the US, however UK lotteries like the National Lottery or Euro Millions also have the potential to pay out ridiculous amounts of money. Just take the Scottish couple Chris and Colin Weir, who won £161 million in 2011.
Can you imagine winning that amount of money from a lottery overnight? At Winzum we wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to spend it all!