$760M Powerball Jackpot Saturday; How Much Would RI Take In Taxes?

RHODE ISLAND — A lucky Powerball ticket holder in Rhode Island could start 2024 with an extra $760 million, the jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing and the sixth-largest prize in the game’s history.

No one matched the winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing: 4, 11, 38, 51 and 68, with a Powerball of 5. To be eligible for Saturday’s drawing at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Rhode Island residents need to buy tickets by 9:50 p.m.

This is the fourth jackpot worth more than half a billion dollars in 2023. The last time a jackpot-winning ticket was sold was on Oct. 11, when a ticket worth $1.765 billion was sold in California. Since then, there have been 32 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.

Although there was no jackpot winner Wednesday, more than a million winning tickets were sold. They included tickets worth $2 million — the players matched all five white balls and doubled their prizes by playing the Power Play multiplier — sold in Colorado, Georgia and Texas. A ticket sold in California matched all five white balls for a $1 million prize.

Also, the lottery said, eight tickets won $150,000 prizes and 34 won $50,000 prizes.

The odds of winning the jackpot are steep — about 1 in 292.2 million. For perspective, the odds of being struck by lightning are less than 1 in 1 million.

And if you do win, keep in mind the federal government takes a 24 percent cut of any prize worth $5,000 or more. Most jackpot winners take the lump sum — that’s $382.5 million for Saturday’s game — and they immediately see fewer dollars flow into their bank accounts when the prize is paid out.

If the $760 million prize were paid out in an annuity spread over 30 years, the IRS would claim 24 percent before the payments went out.

In either case, whether a cash payout or annuity, a jackpot winner would jump into the highest income tax bracket, and would pay the top federal rate of 37 percent.

All but eight states — California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — also tax big lottery prizes. In winnings over $5,000, Rhode Island takes 5.99 percent in taxes.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play. For an extra $1, players can buy the Power Play option that doubles the size of the prize.

The game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. EST from the Florida Lottery drawing studio in Tallahassee.