Local

Feeling lucky? Tonight’s Powerball drawing is up to $570 million

ATLANTA — There was no grand prize winner in Monday’s Powerball lottery jackpot and that means more than half-a-billion dollars is still up for grabs.

Wednesday night’s drawing is set for $570 million with a cash value worth $410.1 million. It would be the eighth-largest Powerball drawing ever.

There has not been a Powerball jackpot winner since the $286 million winnings from the June 5 drawing.

The winning numbers for Wednesday’s drawing were 2, 7, 11, 17 and 32 and the Powerball number was 11.

Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen went to Heby’s food mart in Mableton where people were buying lotto tickets left and right on Wednesday.

The store is owned by Haile Tiruneh. He told Petersen he can tell when friends have pooled their money to buy tickets.

[RELATED: Here are the Georgia stores with the most $1 million lottery wins]

“When they come sometimes with up to $400 — $200 $150; $60. I know that’s an office pool,” Tiruneh said.

Most players prefer to fly solo.

“No, I never got into that. No,” one Powerball player said.

“But you’d share anyway, right?” Petersen asked.

“Yeah, I’ll share,” the player said.

TRENDING STORIES:

The odds of a single ticket winning in Powerball is 1 in 292 million.

Lotteries generally allow a winner to decide how they want to take possession of the jackpot – either by choosing an annuity where the jackpot is paid out over a 30-year period or by taking it in one lump sum.

The federal government and all but a few state governments will immediately have their hands out for a bit of your prize.

The top federal tax rate is 37% for income over $500,000. The first thing that happens when you turn in that winning ticket is that the federal government takes 24% of the winnings off the top.

But the payments don’t end there. You will owe the rest of the tax — the difference between 24% and 37% — at tax time next year.

Your winnings could also be subject to local taxes in some states.

The Georgia Lottery says it reports the names of winners of prizes above $600 to the IRS and Georgia Department of Revenue.

Georgia state income tax of 5.75% and federal income tax of 24% are withheld from prizes of more than $5,000 at the time the prize is claimed.

Additionally, the GLC is required to check for and deduct any outstanding child support payments for prizes of $2,500 and above and student loans and state taxes for prizes of $5,000 and above, net of wager or ticket cost.




0