BIGGEST Lottery Winners EVER & Where They Are NOW!

the jackpots in the Powerball lottery and the Mega Millions get bigger all the time now they break a billion dollars pretty regularly even up past one and a half billion and just once well we'll get there when we get there but who's taking these giant prizes home let's look at the 20 biggest lottery jackpots of all time who's won them and how they're doing today starting with number 20 533 million 2018. Richard wall is our first winner he was a pretty normal guy working as a supervisor for a food service plant in New Jersey on March 30th 2018 wall had 22 dollars in his pocket he bought some gas and a Mega Millions ticket when he found out he'd won the jackpot he says he double checked the numbers on his ticket 15 times to make sure he thought he'd won a million dollars but he was wrong he was the only winner of 533 million dollar jackpot he did the sensible thing and took the lump sum payout after he paid taxes yeah you have to pay taxes on your lottery winnings he went home with about 175 million so what do you do with all that money well he moved to Florida to live the relatively quiet life of a multi-millionaire in 2019 he had a business idea he bought a hotel on the Atlantic coast of Florida called La Playa Resort and Suites it had been closed since hurricane Matthew wrecked it in 2016 but wall wanted to reopen it as a timeshare so he bought the place then 2020 happened you might remember that the year 2020 wasn't the best year for Vacations or construction projects whether kobit contributed or not three years later La Playa Resort and Suites are listed as permanently closed if it never reopens wall might just be out 13 plus million dollars he bought it for and anything he spent renovating it one realtor estimated that could cost about 24 million this kind of setback can ruin most people with his winnings Richard wall can only afford to lose that much money three more times before he'd have a measly 25 million dollars left number 19 536 million 2016. the next winner is a couple from Hamilton County Indiana on July 8 2016 they were on a road trip with their two kids and bought five Mega Millions tickets at a gas station then they forgot about it until almost a month later when they found the tickets again they checked the numbers and found out they'd won the jackpot 536 million dollars now these two wanted to keep living a normal life you know except for all the money and didn't want to mess things up for their kids so they formed a limited liability Corporation to claim the money for them and that's why I can't tell you their names that's going to be a pattern on this list for every winner the first question is whether they went public or stayed Anonymous sometimes staying Anonymous isn't an option like with the crew who won the next jackpot number 18 543 million 2018 when the Mega Millions jackpot got over half a billion dollars in 2018 Ronald Reyes decided he should play and he got 10 other employees at the Wells Fargo where he worked to go in on it with him the 11 of them each put in two dollars and they hit the top prize of 543 million even split 11 ways that's a nice chunk of change and the guy who sold him the ticket got a million dollar bonus too because they won in California the 11 winners had to share their names but they kept a low profile otherwise being one of 11 helps they didn't even quit their jobs at Wells Fargo at least not right away but having to share your name with the public after winning the jackpot can cause you a lot of trouble which is why our next winner really didn't want to do it number 17 559.7 million 2018. you see the state lotto commissions really like to share the names of the people who win it's good advertising and it helps show that they're not cheating but the whole world finding out you just got rich is an invitation for all kinds of trouble from harassment to lawsuits to kidnapping so when this Jane Doe in New Hampshire won the Powerball jackpot were at 559 million seven hundred thousand dollars she didn't want to share her name even though state law said she had to she sued the state to keep her privacy the case went all the way to the New Hampshire Supreme Court and she won she got to White out her name on the winning ticket and write in Good Karma Family Trust of 2018. she took home a cool 264 million now our next winner didn't stay Anonymous and she didn't need publicity for trouble to find her number 16. 590.5 million 2013. on May 18 2013 an 84 year old retired teacher named Gloria Mckenzie was waiting in line to buy her Powerball ticket when someone cut in front of her or maybe she cut in front of them she's told the story both ways but Gloria took the quick pick whichever place in line she was that was the right one her random numbers hit the 590 and a half million dollar jackpot naturally the Great Grandma took the lump sum unfortunately a 278 million dollar payout after taxes couldn't buy her a calm retirement six years later Mackenzie was suing her own son she said the son had hired her a lousy Financial Manager after hearing the guy's commercial the radio and not only did the guy do a terrible job of making the money grow he helped himself to two million dollars in fees as of 2023 the lawsuit is still going on unfortunately Mackenzie died in 2021. it's safe to say this was not what she probably hoped to leave to her kids our next jackpot leaves the 500 million range behind and we start getting up into amounts of money that are just reality bending even if you split them two ways number 15 632 million 2022 in January of 2022 it had been three months since anyone hit the Powerball jackpot and it had grown to 632 million then on January 5th there were not one but two winning tickets the first winner came forward in Wisconsin the ticket belonged to this nice Midwestern couple cliff and Tammy Webster the Websters ended up taking home just shy of 105 40 million dollars and they seem to have stayed out of trouble since then four whole months later Orlando Zavala Lozano turned in the other winning ticket in California and he's managed to stay out of the news too number 14 648 million 2013. our next biggest jackpot win also splits two ways the week before Christmas 2013 a northern California delivery driver and a Georgia grandmother both hit the numbers for the 648 million dollar Mega Millions prize at the time it was the second biggest jackpot in history Ira Curry and Stone Mountain Georgia came forward first to collect her half the other winner Steve Tran didn't know he'd won for more than two weeks on his delivery runs Steve bought lotto tickets all over and he kept them in a pile in his bedroom that's where his winning ticket stayed while Steve took a vacation over the holidays when he got home Steve heard the winning ticket had been bought in San Jose when he remembered he'd pass through there he checked his ticket pile sure enough there was the winner he told his wife the good news and then he told his boss that he wouldn't be coming in ever number 13 656 million 2012. when our last jackpot was the second biggest jackpot ever this ticket was the record holder on March 30th 2012 the Mega Millions jackpot was up to 656 million dollars and there were three winning tickets two of those three ticket holders wanted to keep their heads down the first one was an anonymous winner in Kansas the second was a trio of teachers in Maryland who call themselves The Three Amigos the winners who went public were Merle and Patricia Butler of Red Bud Illinois Patricia said that she'd giggle for about four hours when she found out they'd won the couple took their share about 158 million dollars and bought a mansion in Florida but they also held onto a house in Redbud and that's presumably where they live now after they sold the mansion in 2012. number 12 687 million 2018. four days before Halloween 2018 two ticket holders split a 687 million dollar Powerball jackpot the first winner lived in Redfield Iowa Loren West bought her winning ticket while she was out with her sister and she left the ticket on the floor of her sister's pickup truck luckily the ticket was still there when she went back for it after she collected her half of the jackpot West got some friendly publicity by going on The Ellen Degeneres Show to donate half a million dollars to a charity for disabled veterans the second winner was Robert Bailey from New York City at the time it was the largest jackpot ever won in the state of New York Robert Bailey was a retired government worker who lived in Manhattan where he'd bought his winning ticket at a deli Bailey took home 125 million dollars after taxes he said he wanted to set things up for his family but he didn't want his lifestyle to change much in fact he said he was going to keep playing the lottery 699.8 million 2021 our next winner didn't have to share at the start of October 2021 the Powerball jackpot was just a rounding error shy of 700 million dollars there were five tickets that matched the first 500 numbers but only one matched the red Powerball number that ticket belonged to Steve Godfrey who bought his ticket in Morrow Bay California it was the biggest jackpot ever won in California at the time though there's one coming up that blows it away Godfrey took a lump sum payment of 496 million before taxes by the time the media caught up with them he'd already set up a foundation to handle the money and do what he called deliberate charitable things it sounds good if a little vague I can't help but wish him luck with all the deliberate charitable things he wants number 10 731.1 million 2021 at the beginning of the same year a Powerball jackpot of 731 million dollars Was Won by a mysterious anonymous group that called themselves the power pack whoever they are the power pack bought their ticket in loan accounting a depressed former coal town of just 1200 people in Western Maryland things got a little hairy and Lona koning because everyone suddenly wanted to know who in that little town was suddenly rich and if they'd maybe share some money one family the winner Brenner's was a popular suspect they wrote a letter to the local paper saying they weren't the winners and even the mayor of the Town said he knew Mr winterbrenner hadn't bought the ticket but that didn't stop people for harassing them for money power pack knows who they are but they're keeping their mouths shut number 9. 754.6 million 2023 Becky Bell worked for Boeing the airplane company in Washington state in February 2023 she was buying a Powerball ticket at the grocery store when she saw that jackpot had gotten up to 747 million dollars like the Boeing 747 she decided she had a lucky feeling so she bought two tickets the jackpot ultimately went up to 754.6 million but that change didn't spoil her luck Becky Bell won the biggest jackpot ever seen in Washington state and she took home a lump sum of 407 million two hundred thousand dollars before taxes number eight 758.7 million 2017. here's another jackpot that was the biggest ever at the time we're getting close to the first jackpot to break a billion dollars I can feel it but not yet 758.7 million dollars it's nothing to sneeze at though in fact it's pretty exciting Mavis watch didn't have any chill about winning it even though you're allowed to take your time getting things ready before you cash in your ticket this 53 year old Massachusetts nurse turned in her ticket the next day by the end of the day she'd already retired you don't have to jump in with both feet like that in fact it's smarter not to but I hope she's enjoying her retirement is our next winner the one who hits the Big B number seven 768.4 million 2019 the Powerball jackpot for March 27 2019 exceeded Mavis wonchick's record by a whopping 9.7 million dollars for a total jackpot of 768 400 000 dollars winning ticket belonged to Manuel Franco a 24 year old from Wisconsin like a lot of 24 year olds Franco had less than a thousand dollars in the bank this wasn't going to be a problem anymore he took the cash payout for 477 million dollars pre-tax unfortunately after he came out publicly as the winner he had to start hiding from the media and people trying to get money out of him what's he up to now celebrating his 28th birthday probably bet it's a better party than I had so that's the fourth jackpot in the 700 million range okay I don't know at this rate are we even going to get to a billion dollars number six 1.05 billion 2021 yes yes we are finally the Mega Millions jackpot for January 22nd 2021 broke out of the Millions for an awesome one billion five million dollars and the winner in Michigan was a group of four Anonymous folks called The Wolverine FLL Club since we don't know anything about them I like to imagine the club is an actual family of wolverines but these suddenly wealthy Wolverines were smart enough to hire a human attorney to represent them since Wolverines only live about 15 years in captivity it made sense for them to take the one-time cash payout instead of a 30-year annuity after taxes that came to 557 million dollars split four ways that's a 139 million per Wolverine which should keep them all in high-end beavers rabbits voles and insect larva until the end of their days though their lawyer also said the club would be giving to charity around Southeast Michigan don't let it be said that Wolverines are always bad tempered number five 1.34 billion 2022 as we get into the higher jackpots we're also getting more recent years and recently people have been more aware of how important it is to protect your anonymity when you win especially when you make the big news jackpots over a billion dollars and with that kind of money you can afford to take your time hire lawyers and do it right that's why our next few winners went the same route as the Wolverine FLL Club but with less fun names they set things up to take their winnings anonymously so they could enjoy their multi-millions out of the spotlight on July 29 2022 the Mega Millions Lotto had gone 29 drawings without a jackpot winner that brought the top prize to 1 billion 340 million dollars that's the round when in a gas station just north of Chicago someone bought the winning ticket it was a good while before anyone knew who it was in Illinois Lottery winners only have six days to claim their prize and it was 54 days before the winners came forward to turn in their ticket the anonymous pair had spent time talking to lawyers and financial advisors and generally getting their ducks in a row they took home a lump sum of 780 and a half million dollars pre-tax and that's all we know number four 1.348 billion 2023 our next winner is even more of a mystery the Mega Millions jackpot for January 13 2023 just edges past our last one at one billion 348 million dollars someone bought the ticket in Lebanon Maine but the prize was claimed by a limited liability Corporation Called lacoma Island Investments they took a cash payout of 723 million dollars and I guess they invested it you may be wondering if that name lacoma Island Investments is a clue to who the winners are or where they live but there's no such place as lacoma Island so if you figured that one out you're smarter than me number three 1.537 billion 2018. we all know a little more about the next winner though we still don't know their name as of the drawing of October 23 2018 this was the biggest jackpot ever won on a single ticket five years later there's only been one bigger our number one entry this time the Mega Millions jackpot has gotten up to 1 billion 537 million dollars the winner bought their ticket in Simpsonville South Carolina she stayed Anonymous but took home a pre-tax lump sum of 878 billion dollars she used that right away to donate to some Charities and she let the media know which ones she donated to a Hurricane Relief Fund in South Carolina and the Red Cross Relief Fund for tornadoes that had just happened in Alabama about a hundred miles away in Columbia South Carolina she gave money to a breast cancer charity and the Ronald McDonald House the city of Simpsonville Arts Center got a nice donation too number two 1.586 billion 2016. our second biggest jackpot was the Powerball back on January 16 2016. it weighed in at 1 billion 586 million dollars you might notice that's more than some of the record-breaking payouts I've mentioned already that's because even though this jackpot was Far and Away the biggest ever in 2016. there were three winning tickets so the payout split three ways so the jackpot for each was 528 million which doesn't sound like much this high up on the list but let's not lose perspective oh who am I kidding I've been talking about lottery winners for 15 minutes straight my perspective is completely shot but still three ticket holders took home half a billion dollars and this time none of them stayed Anonymous in fact the first ones to come forward were John and Lisa Robinson of Munford Tennessee and they announced their win on The Today Show it it's no surprise that they ended up getting more attention than they wanted with a lump sum payment of 327 million the Robinsons were probably going to move into a mansion anyway but this got more necessary when people kept trespassing on their property in Munford they live in a house on a lake now and they've kept pretty quiet the next winners to come forward for their share of the billion and a half jackpot were Maureen Smith and David kalchman from Florida like a lot of Floridians these two have lived most of their lives in Long Island New York it's seems like taking home a quarter of a billion dollars didn't change too much for Maureen and David they didn't buy a mansion or do much else extravagant they did buy a Tesla for ninety thousand dollars remember this was 2016. four Teslas were um in the news quite often the third set of winners were Californians Marvin and may Acosta and they kept everyone waiting because California law makes Lotto winners reveal their identities but it doesn't make them hurry the acostas kept their heads down for six whole months while they put together a legal and financial team to handle their share of the winnings they continued to keep their heads down even after they claimed their payout of 265 million dollars after they claimed their payout of 265 million dollars after taxes they bought a bigger house but not too much bigger only five bedrooms and half a million dollars if reports are to be believed in the end all three sets of winners were pretty careful and didn't do anything too wild they all got a part of the biggest jackpot ever until recently but split three ways it was only enough to bring them into the ranks of the mildly obscenely wealthy but what if the winner didn't have to share someone got our number one jackpot all to themselves as long as they can hold on to it but we'll get to that number one 2.04 billion 2023 that previous record for the biggest jackpot ever 1.58 billion lasted from 2016 until November 8 2022. this time the Powerball jackpot reached an astonishing 2 billion and 40 million dollars and there was only one winning ticket sold in Altadena California the winning ticket was in the hands of Edwin Castro a 30-year-old La man like pretty much everyone else on this list he took the lump sum payment which was a pre-tax Bounty of 997 million six hundred thousand dollars as an aside it may be a little frustrating that there have been six jackpots over a billion dollars but no one not even the guy who won two billion dollars got to take a whole billion dollars home even so Castro bought himself a 25 million dollar mansion with what's basically couch change for him with some reasonable investment he could expect to be a proper billionaire pretty soon and it might be the most honest billion a guy's ever made unless Jose Rivera is telling the truth BC Rivera is suing Edwin Castro he says he bought the winning ticket not Castro Rivera's case is still working its way through the courts Rivera claimed he'd lost the ticket he accused his landlord of stealing it and somehow the ticket got into Castro's hands the landlord sort of supports the story he says he didn't steal anything but Rivera did show him the winning ticket if Jose Rivera is telling the truth he's in a tough spot the California Lottery Commission says you've got to hand in the ticket to be the winner and Edwin Castro's the one who had the ticket if he's not the one who bought the ticket it's not technically the lotto commission's business it's a bad look though and the Pasadena Police confirmed they're looking into it meanwhile Edwin Castro is trying to get the lawsuit thrown out but the judge isn't going to rule on that until September so the story is ongoing who knows what will have happened with the biggest jackpot ever by 2024 Maybe by then someone else will have won an even bigger jackpot those are the stories of the winners of the 20 biggest lottery jackpots ever we found out where they came from and if they didn't go radio silent we found out what they did with some of the money did you notice how none of these stories had a part where the winner decided to give money away to strangers on social media yeah if you see a message like that that's a scam stay safe out there and if you're wondering what to do if you end up as a big winner check out our video on the 11 rules lottery winners have to follow

Channel: Millionaire Post

Views: 2,100,674

Keywords: the millionaire post, millionaire post, lottery, powerball, mega millions, lottery winner, powerball winner, powerball winners, megamillions winner, lottery winner stories, biggest lottery winners ever, biggest lottery winners, biggest lottery winner, big lottery winner, biggest lottery jackpots, biggest jackpot, biggest poerball jackpot, biggest powerball winner, edwin castro

Id: TkRq-op0mDI

Length: 25min 8sec (1508 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023