What would you do if you won $1 billion?
There’s almost $1 billion up for grabs in the latest Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots.
Here’s what you need to know and what to do next if you strike it rich.
1. Stay anonymous
If you win the lottery, your natural inclination may be to let everyone know that you hit the jackpot.
Imagine how many long lost cousins and childhood friends suddenly may appear to celebrate your newfound wealth.
Odds are that there will be a million-dollar winner in this week’s Powerball lottery who will never know they won.
About $2 billion in lottery prizes go unclaimed every year. Many of those tickets are worth between $1 and $5, but some folks never realize that they have a life-changing prize in their pocket.
More than 300 prizes worth $1 million or more went unclaimed in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, according to Brett Jacobson. He developed an app called Lotto Lotto that alerts lottery players if they have a winning ticket. As part of the research to create the app, Jacobson requested lottery collection data from all of the state lottery commissions nationwide.
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