If you’ve paid attention to the news this past week then, surely, you know about the massive Powerball lottery drawing. The sum is $1.5 billion, which is over $900 million greater than the second largest jackpot of $590.5 million, drawn in 2013.

While this is a mind­boggling sum by most people’s standards, some of the facts regarding the money may intrigue everyday people and die­hard lottery players alike.

Primarily, the amount of money a lottery winner receives may disappoint those lucky few who win. While the majority of the winnings does in fact make its way into the hands of the winning player, a considerable chunk of the money is removed for tax purposes. While the amount removed varies from state to state, the government withholds about 25% of the lottery drawings. While this may not seem too outrageous, when you subtract that percentage from the cash value, which is actually $930 million, and you apply the state tax (which can be up to 15% of the cash value), you receive about $558 million as the lump sum. This is still a hefty payout, however it removes some of the magic behind the gargantuan number advertised.

If you decide to test your luck and buy a ticket, you likely won’t need to worry about sharing your winnings with another person. This enormous lottery tempted so many people into buying a ticket that the total number of Powerball tickets sold, according to www.lottoreport.com, was over 635 million. The odds of winning Wednesday’s drawing was calculated as approximately 1 in 292.2 million according to ABC. That, stastically, is 1000 times less likely than being hit by a meteorite.

People everywhere dream about winning the lottery and having enough money to do whatever they want. This past week’s astronomically high lottery was no exception. While it is monetarily rewarding to those that win, the lottery also raises interesting statistics and provokes conversations about wealth that have no other reason to be discussed. I’ll leave this article with a question. If you won the lottery, what would you do?