A not-so-lucky lottery winner saw nearly half his massive $2million jackpot taken from him by the government.
Andrew Bramall of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, won big when he matched the first five Powerball numbers drawn on February 1.
But after the lucky winner went to cash the ticket he only took home $1,302,000 with more than a third going to the government.
This was due to the "required withholdings" taken by the government, the New York Lottery said in a press release.
Andrew bought the winning ticket at a Walmart in Farmingdale.
The picture released by the lottery body showed him smiling while holding his oversized cheque from the Lottery.
The $1 Powerplay feature allows players to multiply a non-jackpot prize up to 10 times.
The Powerball is a big earner for the New York Lottery, raising $358,376,004 in sales last year. Around half of that went to School districts in Nassau County in Lottery Aid to Education funds during the same period.
The New York Lottery is North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.6 billion to support education in New York State last year.
Although the money that can be won in the lottery is life changing, it isn't always for the best.
A Kentucky man who won $27million on the lottery ended up blowing all the money in just five years and found himself living in a shed addicted to drugs and reportedly covered in poo.
David Lee Edwards was a convicted felon but struck lucky when he won a quarter-share of the Powerball $280 million jackpot in August 2001.
It was one of the biggest lottery wins in history but by 2006 all of Mr Edwards' money was gone.
The first thing Mr Edwards did after winning big was to marry his girlfriend Shawna Maddux in Malibu, California.
Then the two set out to spend the money.
Just some of the lavish purchases included a mansion in a gated community, a private jet and more than a dozen expensive cars.
But the overspending and drug addiction took their toll.
By 2006, Mr Edwards and Ms Maddux were penniless and living in a storage shed, allegedly covered in human faeces, it was reported at the time.
Ms Maddux soon left and re-married. She and her new husband eventually took Mr Edwards in before finding a space for him in a hospice.
The hard living had taken its toll and in 2013 Mr Edwards died aged just 58.
By the end of his life he had gone through all the winnings and even owed others thousands.
Lavish purchases included the $1.6 million mansion, a 6,000-square-foot monster in a gated community in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The mansion clearly wasn't enough because Edwards bought another house nearby for $600,000.
