Saturday's $535 Million Powerball Jackpot: Florida Payout, Ticket Info

TAMPA, FL — With no winner in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, the stakes have climbed to a whopping $535 million. While that’s not quite a record-breaking jackpot, the take is one of the largest in Powerball history.

Should a Floridian manage to pick all five winning numbers and the Powerball on Saturday, Aug. 19 the take-home amount wouldn’t quite reach that $535 million mark though. Thanks to Florida’s lack of a state tax on lottery games, however, a Sunshine State resident would get to keep a bigger slice of the pie than people who live in some other states.

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The folks at USAMega.com crunched the numbers for each of the states that participate in Powerball, including Florida. The site’s analysts say if a Floridian manages to win on Saturday, he or she would be $401,250,000 richer if a 30-payment annuity were selected. The winner would receive about $13,375,000 a year in payments.

The lump-sum cash payout for the jackpot is estimated at $340,100,000. After the federal government takes its 25-percent bite, that adds up to $255,075,000, USAMega says.

• Related: Dog Wins $3 Million Florida Lottery Prize

For folks still checking their tickets from Aug. 16, the winning numbers for Wednesday were: 9-15-43-60-64 and Powerball No. 4.

Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. The record in the game was a $1.6 billion drawing in January 2016, which was won by a group of Tennessee workers. And five months ago, on Feb. 22, a lucky player in Indiana won the $435 million Powerball jackpot, the 10th largest in the game's history.

Floridians have been known to win a jackpot from time to time. Last year, a 90-year-old from Largo won the state's Lotto. Rather than keep the proceeds from her $43 million jackpot win, however, she opted to give it all away.

The Powerball game is played by matching all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. The odds of picking the correct Powerball grand prize numbers are one in 292,201,338.

If you want to take a chance — someone has to win, right? — you might have better luck scoring the jackpot if you let the computer pick your numbers. The Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates the Powerball game, says about 75 percent of winning tickets are selected when the numbers are chosen by a computer.

The lottery game is played in 44 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball draws can be seen on hundreds of TV stations nationwide. It may also be available on cable or your mobile device. The draws are also posted on YouTube and on the Powerball site. Where to watch the Powerball drawing on TV.

Floridians who aren’t sure where to pick up tickets, can visit the Florida Lottery for a complete list of retailers.

Claiming, Safeguarding Winnings

So, what should you do if you win the big prize? Many lottery winners hire an attorney, financial planner or both, since most people don’t exactly know what to do when they suddenly come into so much money. Some even bring their lawyer with them to claim their prize. The lottery does not offer any counseling services or advice for winners.

You have two choices when you claim your prize: the full value paid in 30 installments over 29 years, or a one-time lump sum that is smaller than the actual total.

Then there are the taxes. The federal tax on lottery winnings is 25 percent.

Financial experts say that if you can get more than a 3 or 4 percent return on an investment, the lump sum is actually the best way to go in the long-term.

Patch editor Deb Belt contributed to this story

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