It would be enough money to park at the Atlanta airport daily for 67 years. Or to buy Christmas trees for every person in the metro area.
Growing up, many Americans get asked what they’d do if $1 million magically appeared in their bank account. It’s an astronomical amount for some; more obtainable for others amid the rise of inflation.
But what if that hypothetical question was nearly 1,000 times that amount?
With the Powerball jackpot reaching $1.6 billion ahead of tonight’s drawing, there are many ways a lucky winner could spend that seemingly endless cash. That’s, of course, if they select the lump sum, which most winners do. That would net them a cool $735,000,000.
So what else could they afford?
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Homeowners likely have their own decorative evergreen trees up by now, but a Powerball winner could buy their own forest. At a price of $85 each, they could purchase 8.6 million Christmas trees. That’s more than the population of metro Atlanta.
What about the Peach Bowl? Tickets for the game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium are averaging about $500 per person, which means you could buy them for everyone there — more than 20 times over.
For all the foodies, the winner could buy more than 216,000 cheeseburgers at The Varsity or 490 million hot dog and soda combos at Costco. Head into the nearest Publix in Buckhead and you could also buy 63,000 12-pack cans of Coca-Cola.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The winnings would be about $200 million shy of buying Atlanta United, which is valued at $975 million by Forbes. The Atlanta Falcons, in retrospect, are valued at $6.35 billion, though owner Arthur Blank likely won’t sell.
Want to buy a MARTA station? The jackpot winner could essentially fund half the estimated costs for four new infill stations that would be the largest expansion to its train network in decades.
Head to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and your car might be a fixture in the parking lots there until 2092, using the $30 daily rate.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
In addition, the funds could help those in need. There are about 10,689 people experiencing homelessness in Georgia and the annual cost to house them would be about $245 million, based on the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment, according to a 2023 report from Hope Atlanta.
The money could also fund half a year of day care costs for practically every family in the state. In 2023, there were 125,120 live births in Georgia and the infant day care costs averaged about $11,000 per year.
But as players anxiously await the fifth-largest drawing in the game’s history, they should also be wary of the dreaded taxes.
After picking the lump sum, the winner would face a 24% federal withholding tax that would bring the prize down to $588.8 million, according to Forbes. After that, a federal marginal tax rate of 37%, the highest, would drop it to $463.2 million.
In September, two lucky players from Missouri and Texas split a $1.79 billion jackpot, which was the second-largest ever won since the game’s 1992 inception. The largest was just over $2 billion, with that ticket sold in California in November 2022.
But just make sure Lady Luck is on your side before you daydream about what to do with all that money. It’s an uphill battle, considering the odds of winning are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
— Staff writer Rosana Hughes contributed to this article.
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