If you do the TVM calculations, you have probably never seen a lottery payout schedule that works out to have greater current value than the lump sum for any reasonable annual rate of investment returns.<p>The $1500M is actually a 30-year <i>annuity due</i> with payments of $50M.  In order for it to be worth $930M in present value, the assumed rate of return can only be about 3.7%.  If you have even a bare inkling that you can invest at a rate better than 3.7%, you should take the lump sum.  For reference purposes, the worst historic 30-year rolling rate of return on a S&amp;P500 index fund is 8%, for a period including the entire Great Depression.  Mostly, people get at least 10% over that span of time.<p>Accounting for federal taxes, which I assume to be 39.6% for a sum that large, the lump sum winner takes $930M and keeps $562M.  For tax reasons, you arrange for your ordinary annual income from the low-risk investments to be $400k, on which you pay $116k in tax, and spend $284k.  So you set aside $13.3M at 3% for this.  With the remaining $549M, you invest at an average 10% over 29 years, occasionally paying 15% long-term capital gains tax, to get $5850M.<p>The annuity winner pays $19.8M in income tax every year, resulting in a net annual payment of $30.2M.  If you subtract $284k as expenses, and invest the rest at 10% with occasional 20% long-term capital gains tax (the tax reason from the previous paragraph), you end up with $3390M after 29 years.  This is almost 7 years behind the lump sum investor.<p>Conclusion: take the lump sum payment.