The World's Biggest Lotteries

Lotteries are one of the oldest forms of gambling known to man. All across the ancient world lotteries were played. The construction of the Great Wall of China was partially financed through lotteries. The American Revolution was financed by various lotteries and venerable educational institutions such as Harvard and Princeton were started with lottery money. In Europe lotteries have a long and colorful history and cities and nations financed public works projects and provided aid to the poor with lottery generated revenues. It comes as no surprise that many of the world's largest lotteries are found in Europe. Italy's SuperEnaLotto is one of Europe's largest and routinely offers jackpots in the hundreds of millions.

The UK National Lottery is the largest in the United Kingdom and one of Europe's biggest. The lottery is run by gaming giant Camelot and players can buy UK national lottery tickets online. Best of all jackpots are paid in a lump sum and are tax free unlike US lotteries where taxes can easily eat up over 50% of a lotto jackpot. The National Lottery funds the 'Big Lottery Fund' which supports various causes and charities. The UK lotto has fourteen separate machines that can be used for lottery draws and many of the machines are named after characters in Arthurian legend such as Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere, Galahad, Vyvyan and Lancelot. The lottery is exceptionally popular and players from outside the UK can purchase online lottery tickets for the UK National Lottery.

EuroMillions is a pan European lottery and one of the world's largest lotteries. Like most European lotteries Euromillions jackpots are tax free and paid in a lump sum. In 2006 three extremely ticket holders shared a €183,000,000($235,770,664.19 USD jackpot. Euromillions jackpots routinely exceed €100,000,000. ($128,822,882.59 USD) Euromillions lottery tickets can be bought online at the official website.

Powerball is an American multi state mega jackpot lottery. Powerball jackpots start at $20 million dollars and if there is no winner the jackpot is rolled over until there is a winner. Powerball jackpots in excess of $100 million are relatively common. Powerball winners have the options of a lump sum payout or an annuity. Many players choose the annuity because of the heavy taxation of lump sum payouts. The largest Powerball jackpot was $365 million which was shared by eight co workers in Nebraska. An agreement reached in 2010 now allows the cross sale of Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets in most jurisdictions.

Mega Millions is another American multi state lottery game. Tickets are $1 and jackpots start at $12 million and, like Powerball, the jackpot is rolled over until there is a winner. Mega Millions has provided the largest lottery jackpot on record anywhere in the world. In 2007 two Mega Millions ticket holders split an amazing $390 million dollar jackpot. Typically Mega Millions jackpots are paid in 26 yearly installments unless the cash option is selected. As has been mentioned most lottery jurisdictions in the US now sell Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets.

Spain's El Gordo lottery is considered by some as the largest lottery in the world. El Gordo typically offers billions of Euros in prizes and the Christmas El Gordo drawings are legendary across Europe. Players can purchase El Gordo lotto tickets online at the official website or at one of the many online lottery services. Although El Gordo jackpots are not record setting the amount of money won is the largest in the world. There are hundreds of El Gordo winners every year.