Florida lottery player wins Mega Millions jackpot, third largest in US history

A lottery player in Florida won the third-largest jackpot in US history.

We’re talking 10 figures, enough to change a person’s life for a dozen generations.

The Mega Millions winning ticket was sold at a supermarket in Neptune Beach, a stone’s throw from Jacksonville, and the winning numbers were 13, 14 (the gold ball), 19, 20, 32 and 33.

READ MORE: The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport Golden Era is a love letter to the W16 engine

The odds of winning the jackpot were estimated to be one in 300 million, and the odds of winning over a billion dollars were even lower than that.

Speaking of which, the winner opted for the ‘annuity’, meaning the money will be given to the winner over the course of 30 years.

The jackpot is $1.58 billion, and if they’d chosen to receive the entire sum in one go, they’d have received around 50 percent of that.

However , because they opted for the annuity, they’ll receive the whole sum, so that works out $52 million a year for 30 years.

We should bear in mind that’s before taxes.

The mega-win automatically puts the winner in the top tax bracket.

According to Forbes, the winner will eventually receive ‘only’ around $490 million after taxes.

Still, that’s nothing to sneeze at, is it?

Here's the article: https://t.co/DqdcohuvJb
Based on lump payment, prize cuts in half to ~ $783.3 million. Doesn't stop there… The winner will be in top bracket, so owes $101,829,000 by 4/15/24 along with 2023 tax return.

— Epic Sports (@epicsportscom) August 9, 2023

For obvious reasons, the identity of the winner has not been disclosed.

In fact, there’s a law in Florida that mandates winners of $250,000 or more are exempt from public disclosure for three months.

However, the weird part is after a 90-day period, the same law dictates that the name and city of residence of the winner should be revealed upon request.

And not just to the authorities but to anyone who asks.

That’s crazy, when you think about it.

This means that, 90 days from now, the lucky winner will probably discover they have a long list of long-lost family relatives they didn’t know about.

Mind you, with an extra $490 million in the bank, perhaps these issues aren’t so big anymore.