The Lotter – Online Lottery Tickets Agent »
Unlike in the United States, where lottery wins are taxed, and the full winnings are paid by an annuity over a period of many years or a reduced lump-sum amount is offered, European jackpots are generally tax-free (the lotteries themselves are taxed in other ways) and the winning jackpot is paid out immediately in one lump sum.
* SuperEnalotto is Italy’s largest lottery. On August 22, 2009, the jackpot was finally won. Since January 31, 2009, nobody had won the jackpot. The total prize money was € 147,807,299.08 (US$ 211,807,859.58) for a player of Bagnone (Toscana). This is Europe’s biggest jackpot for a single winner.
* EuroMillions is a pan-European lottery, with odds of 1 in 76,275,360 and a minimum jackpot of €15 million ($21 million U.S. dollars).
The largest large lump sum payments in European Lotteries include:
* In July 2005, housewife Dolores McNamara, a resident of Limerick, Ireland, won a tax-free lump sum of €115,436,126 ($198 million U.S. dollars) when she hit a nine-week rollover jackpot.
* On February 3, 2006, EuroMillions had a prize of €183 million ($261 million U.S. dollars), which was shared between three winning tickets, two in France and one in Portugal, each winning €61,191,026 ($87 million U.S. dollars).
* In May 2009, a 25-year-old woman from Mallorca, Spain won a EuroMillions jackpot of €126,231,764 ($180 million U.S. dollars). The jackpot had accumulated after rolling over for 7 consecutive draws.[1]
* German National Lottery biggest lottery winning of €37,600,000 ($53 million U.S. dollars) was taken on 7 October 2006.
* Largest UK prize was hit on 6 January 1996 and totaled at £42,000,000 ($69 million U.S. dollars).
* The Irish National Lottery has a guaranteed jackpot of €2 million ($2 million U.S. dollars) for each of its twice-weekly Lotto draws.
* The largest ever jackpot of €18,963,441 ($27 million U.S. dollars) was won on June 28, 2008 by a syndicate of sixteen work colleagues at a quarry and concrete plant in County Carlow.
The record annuity-value prizes in the largest state lottery games in the United States have been:
* California State Lottery: $193 million to three players February 16, 2002[1]
o to single winner, $141 million to Alex Matulas on June 23, 2001[2]
* New York State Lottery: $130 million in special Millennium Millions game November 4, 2000, shared by two winners
o $100 million to Johnnie Ely in Millennium Millions of December 31, 1999
* Pennsylvania State Lottery: $115.6 million shared among 14 winning tickets in April 1989, in Super 7 game later discontinued after a scandal; in subsequent Super 6 game $86,192,222.20 in December 1999, claimed by Shemonski family in March 2000
* Florida State Lottery: $106.5 million to six tickets in September 1990
* Texas State Lottery: estimated $145 million June 19, 2004
* Ohio State Lottery: $75 million April 13, 2002.
