Probably everyone dreamed of winning the lottery. It's nice to get a gigantic amount of money without putting in the least effort. To many, this seems like something unrealizable - incredible luck that can happen only in the lives of others, but not in your own. However, some still managed to hit the "big jackpot", and there are many such people.
We present to you the rating of the largest lottery winnings in the world ever occurring for the entire period of the beginning of the 2000s.
By the way, the most winning lotteries in the world with the largest PowerBall and Mega Millions jackpots, they are the most popular in the world in terms of number of participants.
For obvious reasons, most winners chose to remain incognito.
10. PowerBall Lottery - $ 315 million, 2013
Money is not the key to happiness and success, especially “easy” money. And this story is vivid proof of this. On Christmas Eve, American Jack Whittaker ripped off an incredible amount of $ 315 million. But after that, his life and the life of his whole family went awry. It all started with the fact that Jack was robbed several times. But this is nothing compared to the fact that in his house they found the corpse of a young boy who died from an overdose of drugs. The winner himself turned out to be a cruel criminal. At the trial, his wife admitted that if not for this lottery, their life would have been different.
9. PowerBall Lottery - $ 340 million, 2005
This story is not so much about the power of human intuition or mind, but about incredible luck. One day, a simple American guy named Steve West decided to play a lottery called the Powerball. The essence of the game was that the participants had to guess a few numbers. West guessed everything. And he did this, choosing numbers randomly, without relying on logic or using mathematical analysis. On the same day, millions of dollars rained down on Steve.
8. Mega Millions Lottery - $ 363 million, 2000
Two won in this lottery, but the story of one of them is so comical and so reminds a scene from a film that to bypass it is just a crime. Once, one guy decided to have a snack with junk food, but he didn’t have any small money, and he had to give the cashier a large bill. The cashier could not find change, and he offered to buy 98 lottery tickets instead. The guy agreed. And that's how it all turned out! On that day, the jackpot in the world-famous Mega Millions lottery reached $ 363 million, which at that time was the largest win in the whole lottery “world”.
7. PowerBall Lottery - $ 365 million, 2006
The story is about how important a healthy atmosphere in the team and mutual assistance are all the same. In 2006, several employees of a meat processing plant in Nebraska decided to organize a so-called "pool" - a small syndicate. For fun, they bought some lottery tickets and ... became dollar millionaires! This lottery was called PowerBall, and in that draw it won $ 365 million.
6. Mega Millions Lottery - $ 390 million, 2007
One of the most acclaimed lotteries of the previously mentioned Mega Millions. The announcement of the draw of an unprecedented cash super prize caused a real stir throughout the country: people like crazy bought tickets in whole bundles, crowded in lines. Of course, there were plenty of people who wanted to win the jackpot, but on the night of March 7-8, only two winners were determined who conscientiously shared the win in half.
5. PowerBall Lottery - $ 425 million, 2014
California pensioner Raymond Buxton decided to make a whole performance out of his winnings. He decided not to receive his honestly won millions at once, but first to wait a month. Why a whole month? Buxton simply waited on April 1 to fill up the lottery headquarters on April Fool's Day and in a T-shirt with the image of the Star Wars character on which was written “Good luck to the Jedi be with me!”. Well, the Jedi luck was indeed on the side of this cheerful old man. In an interview, he said that this gain is the most incredible event of his life.
4. PowerBall Lottery - $ 587 million, 2012
This stunning win made happy several people from different cities. One lucky ticket was purchased in Ham Lake, Minnesota, and the other two in New Jersey. If one person won in Minnesota - his name was Paul White, then in New Jersey there is a large group of friends of 16 people and another lucky one - Mario Skarnitzi. If you do not take into account taxes, about $ 86 million each fell to each winner.
3. PowerBall Lottery - $ 590 million, 2013
A unique case in the history of lottery wins. The jackpot in nearly half a billion green was hit by Florida resident Gloria Mackenzie. It is noteworthy that this win was solitary - she did not have to share her money with anyone, which elevated Gloria to the rank of record holders. Just hyper luck!
2. Mega Millions Lottery - $ 640 million, 2012
Another gift from the Mega Millions lottery. This staggering in size prize went straight to three lucky people from three different cities of different states. The sum of 640 million dollars is very difficult to imagine in reality, for the average person - this is something "cosmic". Each winner received $ 213 million, excluding tax.
1. PowerBall Lottery - $ 1,586,400,000, 2016
More than one and a half billion dollars! Can you imagine that? After this, you begin to believe in magic. This crazy jackpot was hit by three lucky people from the states of California, Florida and Tennessee. The largest lottery win in the world for each individually amounted to 528 million "green".
The largest lottery win in Russia is Russian Lotto 506,000,000 rubles, 2017
Natalia Vlasova, a resident of the Voronezh region at the age of 63, became the owner of a record win in Russia, he amounted to 506 million rubles.
While reading the article, everyone probably thought about how the lives of these people had changed or about what he would have done if he had been in the place of these newly minted dollar millionaires and billionaires. In fact, all this is unimportant. As we can see, big money is not always expensive to great happiness, sometimes even quite the opposite. The main thing is how you manage this money.
Other people should never be forgotten: perhaps if Jack Whittaker donated at least part of the winnings to charity, he would be able to save himself from the prison bars and his family from great misfortune.
