10 unbelievable jackpots worldwide
The 5 biggest jackpots in US history
- On the 30th of March 2012, 3 lucky winners from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland got the right combination and won $656 million dollars in the Mega Millions lottery. Maryland and Kansas are among the six statesin which winners can claim their prizes anonymously, which is obviously a huge benefit for the respective winners.It was the largest cash pay-out in history –$ 474 million dollars.
This jackpot was as large as $648 million dollars. In December 2013, the two winners split this unbelievable sum with a cash value of $347.6 million dollars. This jackpot became so large, mostly because the pool of numbers players have to pick from was changed only two months earlier. Previously, 5 numbers between 1 and 56 had to be chosen, now it’s between 1 and 75. The odds of actually winning are much worse and so the jackpot rises every time there is no winner.- 84-year-old Gloria of Zephyrhills, Florida, was lucky enough to be the sole winner of $590.5 million dollars in May 2013. She holds the world record for the largest sum a single person has ever won in a jackpot.Hadn’t it been for a friendly, and now probably really frustrated woman, who let Gloria take her place in line, she wouldn’t have won at all. Since Florida is a state where lottery winners cannot remain anonymous, Gloria had to come forward and it’s a good thing she did, since Powerball winners have only 180 days to claim their winnings.
A couple from a small town in Missouri won half of this the $587.5 million dollars Powerball jackpot in November 2012. Cindy and Mark only wanted two things:a red Chevrolet Camaro and a pony for their 6-year-old daughter.- After the most recent large jackpotwas hit, in February 2015, three people split $381 million dollars cash value. It was such a large jackpot that 36 more people won $1 million dollars each. The big winners were from North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico. It is the first time someone outside the continental US has won a jackpot. Powerballs played in 44 of the 50 US-states as well as the Virgin Islands, where there has never been a jackpot win so far.
Biggest Jackpot wins in Europe
- In Europe, jackpot wins are smaller, but lottery wins are usually not taxed, which means that the cash pay-out is similar to that in the US. On the 10th of August 2012 Adrian and Gillian Bayford from the UK won $200 million dollars in the Euromillions jackpot. The couple was determined to live their lives as normal as possible, however, they have since split up. Gillian remained in their country mansion, while Adrian moved to a six-bedroom apartment.
- Unbelievably, this jackpot was hit for a second time in October 2014, where a single-ticket won $ 200 million dollars in Portugal.$ 200 million dollars is as high as the EuroMillions lottery jackpot can go. At that number the rollovers stop and consequently, the sum stops rising.
The biggest jackpot in a European lottery of only one country was won in the Italian SuperEnalotto, August 2009 in Bagnone. It was a single-ticket win with a sum of $157 million dollars.- There was actually a SuperEnalotto jackpot in October 2010 that was higher, $190 million dollars, however, it was split among 70 winners, who had bought one ticket together.
- The biggest jackpot to ever be won in an online casino was hit in January 2013. A player in Finland was lucky enough to win $19,1 million dollars. The Mega Fortune slot machine game is immensely popular and keeps paying-out large sums every year.
