The printers were working overtime at the Shell Station on Smith Road in Brook Park on Saturday night.
Around 9:30 p.m., the line for tickets stretched across the store with everyone dreaming about how they’d spend the then-record $900 million jackpot.
“I’m gone,” Peggy Shepard said. “I’m going to buy an island, so…my kids will he happy.”
No ticket matched all six Powerball numbers after Saturday night's drawing, and the jackpot may grow to $1.3 billion.
“I got a lot of bills and student loans, so I’d pay those all off,” Ed Garcia said.
But the lucky winner also gets to share a big chunk of that windfall with Uncle Sam.
RECORD POWERBALL JACKBOT BY THE NUMBERSIf you live in Ohio, here's how your $900,000,000 #Powerball jackpot can quickly shrink to less than a third of that. I'll still take it! Watch the drawing live on NewsChannel 5 at 11! GOOD LUCK!!!!
Posted by Derick Waller on Saturday, January 9, 2016
If someone won and they chose the lump sum, that $900 million would shrink to $558 million. That money is then treated like income, meaning the federal government gets 39.6 percent of it, or about $221 million.
If the winner lives in Ohio, the Buckeye state gets another 5.33 percent, or about $29 million and depending on where the winner lives in the state, local governments get a cut too. In Cleveland, they’ll take another 2 percent, or more than $11 million.
That means, after taxes, the jackpot could shrink to about $297 million.
Not surprisingly, those facts did not seem to bother anyone newsnet5.com’s Derick Waller talked to waiting in line.
"With that amount of money? They can take the tax if they want as long as I’m getting a big chunk of money,” Garcia said.
The Ohio Lottery urges any winners to seek the professional advice of a tax lawyer or accountant. The odds of winning are 1 in 292 million.
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