We got one, I have no idea how it works though
If you win, you can choose to either receive the annuity payout in 30 payments (in which the total payments will equal the stated prize) or you can choose a cash out option, where you will receive the present value of the prize, which is typically approximately 62 percent of the prize. The annuity is not equal payments. The first check is the smallest, and each subsequent check is increased by 5 percent to account for inflation. So if the prize is 1.3 billion, then the cash out option would pay you a little over $800 million while the annuity would give you an average of $43 million a year. Then you need to deduct taxes.
A lot of the horror stories of lottery winners squandering their winnings dates back to the early days, when the prizes were smaller and there was no cash out option. One of the first $5 million winners quit his job, but then blew his first year's check in a matter of months, so basically he was broke for the rest of the year. With such a large prize, the annual check is plenty big enough that it would be really hard for you to blow it all before the next check rolls around, so it more than makes
sense to go for the annuity. There are plenty of analytical studies around which determines that you really need to invest most of the money and get an annual rate of return of at least 4 percent in order to make more money over 30 years in order for the cash out option to result in more money than getting a guaranteed check every year for 30 years.