$360 Million Powerball Jackpot: How Much Would a Floridian Take Home?

By Kara Seymour (Patch Staff)

Feeling lucky? Like one in 175,223,510 lucky?

Then get your Powerball tickets ahead of Saturday’s drawing because the jackpot will be the biggest it’s been in nearly a year.

Since no one won the top prize during Wednesday’s drawing, the jackpot now swells to an estimated $360 million for Saturday. If a single ticket wins the drawing, that’s a cash prize of $250.5 million, according to the Powerball website.

But, just how much does that add up to in take home cash for a Florida resident?

According to the website USAMega.com, a whole lot of beans!

Since Florida has no state tax on lottery prizes, the net payout is an estimated $187,875,000. That compares, for example, to a winner in New York where state tax is 8.82 percent. The take home jackpot there would drop to $165,780,900, USAMega.com estimates.

According to lottery officials, the prize will be the largest since Feb. 19, 2014, when a California man won the $425 million jackpot. The biggest Powerball jackpot on record was a $590.5 million prize won in Florida in May 2013.

Saturday’s drawing takes place at 10:59 p.m. Ticket sales stop at least 59 minutes before the drawing.

Powerball is played in 44 states, including Florida, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Patch Editor Sherri Lonon contributed to this report.

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