Originally Posted by kane

Another shitty thing is that they don't tell you this up front when you buy the ticket. So you win 200 million and think you are getting 200 million then end up with 45 million. Still it is a ton of money, but its a ripoff.

Most states will pay you the full amount if you take the annual payments over 25 years. They probably force the lump payouts to take half because they don't want to come up with it all at once.