What is Powerball's actual payout?

Winners of huge jackpots should think about taxes.

Someone could wake up Thursday morning a billionaire. The rest of us will just have experienced longer lines at the convenience store to buy gas, beer or cigarettes.

"A lot of people buy a lot of tickets when the jackpot gets really high," said Kirah Guppa, a clerk at the Pit Stop Xpress on South York Road in Gastonia.

The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night's drawing has grown to $1.2 billion or $596.7 million in cash. The $1.2 billion would be paid out over a 30-year annuity, although most big winners take the instant cash.

How much would you really win?

Winners of huge jackpots should think about taxes. Consider this, if one person hits the Powerball jackpot and takes the cash prize of $596.7 million, they would likely pay a total of $250,517,483 in state and federal taxes, according to USA Mega, a website that tracks the numbers.

That means instead of taking home almost $600,000, the winner would actually have $346,182,715 after taxes. Still, that's a lot of money.

How to play and odds

Big jackpots also bring out new lottery players who may not know the odds or the various ways to win smaller prizes.

Powerball tickets are $2, although players can buy tickets for $3, which does not improve the odds, but does increase the winnings by up to 10 times for winners of $50,000 or less.

Here is the prizes available, how much a player can win, and the odds. Those who buy a $3 ticket can see prizes multiplied by either 2 times, 3 times, 4 times, 5 times or 10 times on prizes of $50,000 or less.

Powerball, $4, 1 in 38.32

1 white ball, plus Powerball, $4, 1 in 91.98

2 white balls, plus Powerball, $7, 1 in 701.33

3 white balls, $7, 1 in 579.76

3 white balls, plus Powerball, $100, 1 in 14,494.11

4 white balls, $100, 1 in 36,525.17

4 white balls, plus Powerball, $50,000, 1 in 913,129.18

5 white balls, $1 million, 1 in 11,688,053.52

5 white balls, plus Powerball, grand prize, 1 in 292,201,338.00

Powerball's last jackpot winner

No one has won the Powerball jackpot in the last 38 drawings. Here is the list of 2022 Powerball jackpot wins, according to powerball.com:

$632.6 million — Jan. 5; California, Wisconsin.

Winners of huge jackpots should think about taxes.