A lottery jackpot, the prize money in a lottery drawing, can be incredibly large. The chances of winning a jackpot are slim, but many people have bought tickets with the hope of becoming rich overnight. The reality, however, is that it’s much more difficult to become wealthy than most people realize. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you buy your next ticket.

Super-sized jackpots drive lottery sales and earn the games a windfall of free publicity on news sites and TV shows. But they also raise the bar on what it takes to win, which makes winning a jackpot less likely and drives up ticket prices.

Lottery winners can choose to receive their prize in a lump sum or an annuity that spreads the payout over 20 or 30 years. Most winners opt for the lump sum, which can be a substantial amount of money. But if you choose the annuity, you’ll get a lower tax rate than you would on a lump sum.

To increase your odds of hitting the jackpot, select random numbers that aren’t close together. This will decrease the competition and improve your odds of picking a winning combination. Additionally, you can improve your odds of keeping an entire jackpot if you play in a lottery pool. Join a group or start one of your own to purchase a larger number of tickets and boost your odds of winning.

Lottery winners must be aware of the fact that the IRS counts their prize as income and that they will have to pay taxes on it. If the jackpot is particularly large, it will likely push a winner into a higher federal tax bracket, which currently stands at 37%.