Tonight's Powerball Jackpot Tops $1 Billion, Fourth-Biggest in History

investopedia.com:

With no winner announced on Saturday, Monday night's Powerball jackpot amounts to a whopping $1.04 billion.

Correctly match five white numbers and one red one at the 10:59 p.m. Eastern time drawing—a feat with odds of roughly 1 in 292 million—and you could win the fourth-biggest prize in Powerball history.

But winning doesn't mean the lucky ticket holder gets to pocket $1 billion.

Winners of the Powerball jackpot have two options to claim the money: lump sum or annuity. Choosing a lump sum means you'll receive about $478.2 million right away—less than half the $1.04 billion sum.

Next, a 24% federal withholding tax is applied to that sum, dropping the winnings to just more than $360 million. What's more—because the federal government counts lottery earnings as income—you could be moved into a higher tax bracket, potentially as high as 37%, which could slice your earnings to as little as $301.3 million.

Go with the annuity option, and you'll receive the full $1.04 billion over 30 years of installments. That, however, could also be cut, once federal taxes are applied. If you're in the top income-tax bracket of 37%, your annual installments could decline to $21.8 million, from $34.7 million. That will total just over $650 million over three decades.

The amount you pocket from a Powerball win also could depend on where you live. Certain states, like Florida and Texas, don't tax lottery winnings. Others, like Maryland and New York, tax upwards of 8% on your winnings.A lump-sum winning ticket in New York, with an 8.82% lottery tax rate, would yield less than $250 million after federal withholding tax, income tax, and state lottery tax is accounted for.

Of course, the numbers above assume a single winner. If there are multiple