New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- the lump sum that replaces receiving the advertised $748 million in annual payments over 29 years. State taxes apply after that. Legal and financial fees follow. Nobody who bought a ticket at a gas station counter this week was thinking about any of it.

59 p.m. Eastern at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The prize is the largest active lottery jackpot in the country, arriving less than a week after a Florida ticket claimed an $803 million Mega Millions prize that has still not been publicly claimed.

The federal math follows a two-step sequence. Powerball withholds 24 percent at the point of payment on prizes exceeding $5,000, reducing the $325.1 million cash option to roughly $247 million before a win...