Lottery jackpot records and more:

USA – on January 13, 2016, the U.S. Powerball drawing created the ever largest jackpot in the world history, with an annuity value of 1,586,400,000 dollars, it was split by three winning tickets.
Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 44 states and the minimum advertised jackpot is 40 million dollars.
Powerball’s predecessor began in 1988, as the multi-state game was known as Lotto America.
The game and name were changed to Powerball on April 19, 1992, and its first drawing was held April 22.
Powerball’s annuity is divided into 30 payments, but the winners can also choose cash instead, but then he agrees that the winning prize will be half of the original amount.
The next largest jackpot in American history was a Mega Millions jackpot, which was over 656,000,000 dollars.

EUROPE – prior to 2016, Spain’s “Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad”, the Spanish Christmas Lottery, was generally considered to be the world’s largest lottery game, with the largest first prize/jackpot.
In 2012, the first prize was 720 million Euros (then 941.8 million dollars) and the total prize pool in 2012 was 2.52 billion Euros (3.297 billion dollars).

TAXES – unlike in the United States, where the lottery wins are taxed, the European jackpots are generally tax-free, as the lotteries themselves are taxed in other ways before, and the jackpots are paid in a lump sum, for example, in the United Kingdom’s National Lottery, the wagers are split between the game operator and the government.