About The Lottery Math

Why this site exists

Every lottery billboard in the country shows one number, and it is the number that flatters the lottery most. A "$663 million jackpot" is not $663 million. It is a 30 year annuity, and almost nobody takes the annuity. The cash option is roughly 43% to 50% of that headline figure, and it moves with interest rates. Then federal tax takes about 37% of what is left, and depending on which state sold the ticket, another 10.9% can disappear after that.

None of this is hidden, exactly. It is just spread across fine print, IRS publications, and 51 different state tax codes, which is a reasonable description of "hidden" for most people buying a ticket at a gas station. The gap between the advertised number and the real one is routinely more than half the prize. That gap is what this site measures.

The point is not to talk anyone out of playing. It is to make the actual arithmetic available to anyone who wants to look at it, for free, without an account, in about five seconds.

Who runs it

The Lottery Math is an independent project, built and maintained privately. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or funded by Powerball, Mega Millions, the Multi-State Lottery Association, or any state lottery commission. No lottery operator has any input into what this site says, which matters, because a fair description of the cash option and the tax hit is not especially flattering to the product being sold.

We publish under the project name rather than a personal one. Because that means you cannot evaluate the author, we try to make the work itself checkable instead: every tax figure on the site is traceable to a primary source, and the methodology page documents the formulas, the data sources, the update cadence, and an explicit list of what the calculator does not model. If a number here is wrong, that page gives you enough information to prove it, and we will correct it.

Editorial standards

• Primary sources only for tax data.

  Federal brackets come from the IRS revenue procedure itself, not from secondary reporting or from memory. State rates are cross-checked between the Tax Foundation and the state revenue department.

• Official figures over estimates.

  We use each game's published cash value rather than applying a fixed percentage to the advertised jackpot, because that percentage is not fixed.

• Simplifications are disclosed, not buried.

  The calculator makes real simplifications. They are listed plainly on the methodology page along with how much each one shifts the result.

• No advice, ever.

  This is an educational calculator. It is not tax, legal, or financial advice, and it cannot account for your circumstances. Anyone holding a real winning ticket should be talking to a CPA and an attorney, not a website.

• Corrections are welcome.

  Tax law changes and parsers break. Reader corrections are the fastest way we find out.

How the site is funded

The calculator is free and has no paywall, no account requirement, and no upsell. Running it costs money, so it is supported two ways: voluntary reader contributions through a tip jar, and advertising. Neither one changes the numbers. Advertisers have no influence over the tax figures, the state rankings, or anything else on the site, and no lottery operator pays for placement here.

We do not sell personal data, and the calculator does not require any. All tax math runs in your browser, so the jackpot amounts and filing status you enter are never sent to a server. The privacy policy covers what is and is not collected.

What you can do here

Get in touch

Corrections, questions, and press enquiries are all welcome through the contact page. Corrections that cite an official source get handled fastest.