I think it's quite telling (and depressing) that the vast majority of the comments on this are "taxes are bad" and "wow, they took away that much money?" instead of "he now has enough money to live three lifetimes in luxury and still have millions left over, he's set for life and more".

Our societies are obsessed with having as much as possible, instead of with having as much as needed, which are two very different concepts. Economists have a concept of a utility curve; most people, it seems, ignore that concept.

I posted this comment a few days ago, but it is worth repeating: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32278994

In Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency considers gambling winnings to be windfalls that are not subject tax, so any winners receive the full value of the advertised prizes [0]. [0]

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/technic...

A possible reason as to why this is also the case is that most/all of the lotteries are run by the provinces themselves, so you could think of them removing the taxable amount continuously in an accumulative fashion as the total pot grows and then only advertising what the winner would take home.

More accurately: winner chose lump sum, which was then taxed

That the government can tax their own money they give away is disgusting

National lotteries worldwide are really nothing but a punitive scam to tax the poor by selling them on an illusionary idea of a shortcut to their materialistic dreams. Also I bought $60 worth of Megamillions tickets for the draw.

If it were any one other than the government doing it the lottery would be illegal.

And in fact it is illegal for anyone other than the government to run a lottery.

in a sarcastic tone I like the lottery, it is a tax on the stupid.

Makes me wonder if paying taxes should be a lottery too. One out of every million will get 1000x their payed taxes back.

433.7M dollars is still pretty good. Depending on age, it might also be the smart way to do it. A guy in his 20s winning the lottery and a guy in his mid 60s is two very different use cases for money.

Since I learned of them in my childhood, it always seemed obvious that lotteries are a government-approved scam, but I never imagined they were a scam on so many levels.

I have to say I can't really imagine what difference it would make to me if I got $433M instead of $1.28B or vice versa. I just find it unimaginable either way.

Well, the winner can now waste $1.18M each day and will be left with nothing in 365 days :)

Taxes are theft... Nobody pays them voluntarily, and if you don't, well you go to jail.

Congrats to the winner!