What would you do with one million dollars? Many of us will have built a fantasy around what we would do with a big bulk sum like that and it certainly seems a spendable amount. What about one-hundred million? It becomes a very different story; it suddenly seems like such an absurd amount that spending it all seems out of the realm of possibilities – it also raises another question that often comes with a big win too, would you take the full pay-out upfront or take the annual payments? It’s certainly a tough call to make and it’s always interesting to find out the people behind the big wins. The fifth largest lottery jacket has been drawn, totalling $731.1 million, with the ticket being sold in Maryland – but we may never know who the winner is.
The big win comes following a number of big rollovers for the jackpot as the winning ticket was the first to get the top prize in a number of months – the ticket sold in Allegany county in north-western Maryland, but winners in Maryland have the right to remain anonymous if they choose to and so we may never know who had claimed such a huge prize, along with the spending it does bring to question – would you stay anonymous or would you want the world to know?
Remaining anonymous off of a big win is something that many in other states have certainly wished for in the past, some of which require you to come forward on a big win – this is something that will need to be carefully considered as online gambling and betting moves to the online space too, will the same rules be necessary to protect winners or is a different approach taken for the online space – there is a lot of regulation change addressing this to ensure winners have a choice and can stay safe, some such as Michigan online gambling allow anonymity in a similar fashion but require more public knowledge if a win crosses any multi-state lines for the bigger lotteries, but have some allowance for smaller wins.
With this nearly billion-dollar win, the jackpot once again falls to an estimated $20 million, but there’s still an opportunity for someone to strike big with the Mega Millions which now stands at $970 million and is quickly approaching the largest win of $1.58 billion which had been won by three people back in 2016. It may be a long time before the prize pool is able to get so high again, so those looking to try their luck may certainly be in for a big surprise if their own numbers turn up, and a life changing amount of money can be won.
