Lottery fever breaks out every few months as people hope to become one of the lottery success stories, winning big jackpots and doing great things with it. But who have been the biggest lottery winners around the world? Here are five historic lotteries that hold records for their jackpot size, their massive prize pool, or their longevity.
1. World's Biggest Lottery Jackpot: Powerball's $1.5 Billion Drawing
Powerball sales started to rise as 2015 came to a close, and growing excitement turned into a ticket-buying frenzy.
By the first Powerball drawing in 2016, the projected jackpot had reached more than $333 million, and the very next drawing crested half a billion. When no winning ticket was awarded, the value of the jackpot leaped to $949 million and then to $1.5 billion, when three winning tickets were finally sold. At that point, more than 89 percent of all of the possible Powerball combinations had been played, so the odds were high that the next jackpot, which was estimated at more than $2 billion, would not be reached.
2. The Largest Lottery Jackpot Won by a Single Person
When all of the winning Powerball numbers finally matched a ticket on August 23rd, 2017, the jackpot shattered records. $758.7 million dollars might only have been the second-largest jackpot ever, but it was the biggest prize ever awarded to a single lottery player.
3. The Largest Total Prize Pool: Spain's Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad
Spain's Christmas Lottery, the Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad, breaks records for exactly the opposite reason as the jackpot above. It has the biggest total prize pool of any lottery in the world, topping €2.31 billion in 2017. But because there are so many prize levels, and so many tickets sold, the individual prizes won are smaller.
4. The World's Longest Continuously-Running Lottery
The Spanish Christmas Lottery is not only distinguished by its large prize pool but also by how long it has been running. But it isn't the world's oldest lottery; that record is held by the Staatsloterij in the Netherlands.
5. The Largest Lottery Jackpot in Europe
The largest lottery jackpot in Europe was a £161.7 million prize awarded on July 12th, 2011, from the EuroMillions lottery. Only one winning ticket was sold, making it the largest jackpot awarded to a single player in Europe
