The Biggest Jackpots & Lottos Of All Time

There's been quite a lot of talk about record jackpots recently.  Over the summer we were celebrating a Guinness Worlds Record achievement for the biggest online gambling payout when one of our Lottolanders won that amazing €90 million (NZD$154M) from her EuroJackpot bet. Powerball rules the roost in terms of the biggest jackpot paid out overall but the current MegaMillions jackpot of $837 million is certainly making people sit up and take notice as it is currently the second biggest MegaMillions jackpot of all time. 

Let's take a look at the biggest lottos and jackpot payouts in the world. 

The Biggest Lottery Jackpot In The World

While PowerBall is in the record books as having paid the largest jackpot of all time, it's still not the biggest lottery in the world. Powerballs record-breaking jackpot was worth $2 billion NZD, and even though this is a staggering amount it is still a considerable amount less than the amount paid out in prizes by the Spanish Christmas Lottery, a.k.a. "El Gordo", which regularly boasts an overall prize pool of $3.2 billion NZD. The difference is that El Gordo shares that prize fund around much more equitably, so nobody will take home a single jackpot prize to rival that of Powerball. 

But could PowerBall or MegaMillions ever unseat El Gordo to take the title of "Biggest Lotto in the World?" There is still a long way to go for either of those lottos to reach the magical $3.2 Billion NZD mark, but never say never!

The Biggest Jackpots In New Zealand

Whilst the New Zealand Powerball isn't as large as some of its overseas counterparts, it has provided some nice jackpots and lottery wins for local Kiwi lottery players.

See below for some New Zealand lottery records:

Biggest New Zealand Lotto Jackpots
Lottery	Record	NZD$ Value
New Zealand Powerball	Largest Jackpot Prize	$44 million
New Zealand Powerball	Largest Individual Lottery Win	$33 million

The Biggest Jackpots In The World

In the race for the biggest ever lottery jackpot PowerBall is safely in first place as the undisputed lottery jackpot heavyweight.

MegaMillions recently nearly broke Powerball's record for the biggest ever lottery jackpot, but came up agonisingly short at USD$1.54 billion. It was however, the biggest ever MegaMillions jackpot of all time.

So currently, the world rankings are as follows:

Biggest Lotto Jackpots
Lottery	Record Jackpot	NZD$ Value
Powerball (US)*	USD$1.586 billion	$2.4 billion
MegaMillions [US]*	USD$1.537 billion	$2.3 billion
SuperEnaLotto** [IT]	€209 million	$360 million
EuroMillions [EU]	€190 million	$290 million
EuroJackpot [EU]	€90 million	$140 million

*Powerball and MegaMillions Tiers 1-3 are subject to 38% reduction as per T&C's. Tier 1 winning bets are paid out as a 30 year annuity or discounted lump sum at Lottoland's election.

**SuperEnaLotto Tiers 1-3 for winning bets are subject to 12% reduction as per T&C's.

The Biggest Ever Lotto Win

The record for a single ticket jackpot win was the USD$758 million won by Mavis Wanczyk from Massachusetts in 2017 and that second record has now been consigned to the history books thanks to the latest monster MegaMillions jackpot win of USD$1.537 billion (NZD$2.3 billion) by a single ticket-holder. We may never find out just who that winner is though, since South Carolina is one of the few states to allow MegaMillions winners to remain anonymous.

Other Biggest Lotto Wins

What about other lottos? Well, in the table below you'll find details of the biggest jackpots, plus biggest single-winner prizes ever won in the Irish Lotto plus other popular lottos which you can place bets on at Lottoland:

Other Lottos Biggest Jackpots
Lottery	Record Jackpot	NZD$ Value
Irish Lotto	€18.9 million	$33 million
Australian Oz Lotto	$112 million AUD	$120 million
German Lotto	€45.4 million	$80 million
French Lotto	€24 million	$42 million
Hong Kong Mark 6 Lotto	HK$169.3 million	$32 million

Go to the MegaMillions page for your chance to create a new record for the biggest lottery win of all time, and who knows, maybe you could be appearing on the next version of this list!