I knew you take a big hit by taking the lump sum, and then that sum gets taxed at a high rate as well, but JFC...walking away with less than 1/4 of the jackpot amount. Still a crazy sum, but damn. Feels like the advertised jackpots are false advertising lol.
I believe CA also takes the winnings separately, where some states do not. I think MD is not tax on national lotteries, so it's like an extra $200 million or something that you save, haha.
Also, the initial sum of those "jackpots" is, I think, the money that was actually raised for local and other budgets. so it's like $300+ million right off the top, and THEN it's taxed, maybe twice.