Biggest. Jackpot. Ever.
Canadians can play U.S. lottery worth more than $500 million
Canadians recently off-put by the news they will now be working until 67 may find themselves salivating at the thought of a $540 million return on a $1 investment.
That $540 million is the jackpot at stake in a Mega Millions lottery in the U.S. — and it could go up.
The draw takes place Friday at 11 p.m., and has been modestly billed as the largest prize in the world. Ever. Turns out we can play, too. “We don’t discriminate,” said Mary Cassani, the administrative services manager at Vermont Lottery, one of 44 states that offer Mega Millions tickets. “People, they’ll email us and want to know, ‘Can Canadians win the lottery?’ Absolutely.”
All you have to do is match six winning numbers from two separate pools of numbers — five from 1 to 56, and one from 1 to 46. By comparison, the largest lottery prize ever won in Canada was a paltry $54.3 million from a Lotto 6/49 jackpot on Oct. 26, 2005. But one must be strategic. Some states are friendlier than others. A gambling man — or woman — who feels he or she can tackle odds that read like the census count (odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot: approximately 1 in 175,711,536) would be better off heading to Pennsylvania. Of four northern states surveyed, it’s the only one that doesn’t have state tax on lottery winnings — although there is a 25 to 30 per cent tax for out-of-country gamblers. Depending on how a Canadian chooses to collect his or her winnings, the 30 per cent tax would lower the prize to $380 million or so. (State residents must pay a 25 per cent federal tax.) In other states, non-u.s. lottery players pay a 30 per cent federal tax as well as state taxes — for example, 8.82 per cent in New York, 7.2 per cent in Vermont and 4.35 per cent in Michigan. So for a Canadian in New York, the winnings could drop to a slender $329 million.
Lottery winnings are not taxable in Canada, unless they’re invested.
There are two options for collecting the Mega Millions jackpot: either a lump sum of approximately $390 million or an annuitized jackpot at almost $21 million a year for the next 26 years, which equals $540 million.
Some people take the lump sum, at less money, in order to invest it themselves and potentially make more in the long run, said Andi Brancato with Michigan Lottery.
She said players from Windsor, Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie have made the trek to Michigan to buy lottery tickets. Some have won smaller prizes but never a jackpot. What if a Canuck took this prize? “Whenever we have a jackpot winner, everybody is disappointed,” said Brancato. “So I think people would experience the same kind of disappointment (if the winner was Canadian).
“But, you know, we’re selling a product and we would be happy to give somebody this prize money.”