The September 15 draw of the Mega Power didn’t produce a Mega Super Prize winner. This means that the Mega Super Prize rolled over to the next day’s draw reached almost Rs. 235 million, or 1.26 million US dollars. An attractive first prize, without a doubt, but it pales compared to some of the biggest lottery jackpots in the rest of the world. Then again, these lotteries are usually based in the US, where “everything” is bigger (especially the number of lottery players contributing to the prize pool). Still, the sheer size of their jackpots makes them stand far out of the crowd.
The odds of winning a lottery are way worse than hitting the jackpot at an online gambling outlet. Still, hundreds of millions of people around the world show up week after week – sometimes day after day – to try their luck. Sometimes, their dreams come true in the form of life-changing wins at the lottery.
Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad (Spain)
The Spanish Christmas lottery is the world’s largest lottery game when it comes to its prize pool: in 2016, it was $2.31 billion. While it doesn’t have spectacular single payouts – its top prize is won by hundreds of tickets – it does qualify as perhaps the most generous lottery in the world. In 2011, the top prize of the El Gordo (the big one) was $960 million – each of the 180 winners received a prize worth $5.2 million.
Euromillions (certain European countries)
The more, the merrier, the old saying goes – and this applies to lotteries as well, especially in the case of Euromillions. The transnational lottery introduced in 2004 has participants from nine countries, and has wins to match: the current jackpot of the lottery is around EUR 67 million ($79 million).
The lottery’s highest jackpot win reached the fabulous amount of EUR 190 million ($225 million) four times in its history, between 2012 and 2019.
Half of the lottery’s revenues are distributed among the winners, and a further quarter goes to “Good Causes”, a programme that distributes money through grants.
The fabulous US lotteries
As we said above, everything is bigger in the US – and this includes lottery jackpots. The two biggest American lotteries, Powerball and Mega Millions have made the news several times thanks to their record-breaking prize pools.
The title for the biggest lottery jackpot in history is currently held by Powerball, a lottery played across 45 US states and several territories. Powerball’s 2016 jackpot reached a staggering $1.58 billion, breaking the world record for the world’s largest jackpot. It was won by three lucky winners, each of them getting more than $300 million after-tax.
The world record for the largest single payout by a lottery is also held by an American game: Mega Millions. In October 2018, a lucky winner became a millionaire overnight, winning a jackpot worth $877 million.
