South Carolina Powerball Rules
To play in South Carolina, simply pick five numbers between 1 and 69 and one Powerball from 1 to 26. The following state-specific rules also apply:
- You must be at least 18 years of age to play Powerball in South Carolina.
- The cut-off for ticket sales is 9:59pm ET on the night of each drawing, resuming shortly after the winning numbers have been drawn.
- In South Carolina, all lottery tickets must be paid for in cash. You cannot use a check or credit card to buy tickets.
- You can enter up to 30 draws in advance.
- The South Carolina Lottery offers Double Play alongside Powerball. It costs $1 to play on top of a $2 ticket.
- State taxes will be levied on winnings of more than $500, up to a maximum of seven percent.
How to Claim Prizes
Prizes up to and including $500 can be paid out by any licensed lottery retailer. The money may be paid in cash, by store check, money order, or a combination thereof.
You can claim prizes up to and including $100,000 by mail or at the Claims Center in Columbia. Prizes greater than $100,000 must be claimed in person at the Columbia Claims Center. It is open from 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday, excluding state holidays. You are advised to arrive at the Claims Center no later than 4:00pm to allow time for the claim to be processed. The address is as follows:
Columbia Claims Center
1309 Assembly Street
Columbia, SC 29201
Tel: 803-253-4004
If claiming by mail, you need to sign the back of the winning ticket and complete a claim form, obtainable from any lottery retailer. Mail the signed ticket along with the claim form and a valid form of identification to the address below. Acceptable forms of ID include a driver’s license, state or military ID, or passport.
SC Education Lottery
P.O. Box 11039
Columbia, SC 29211-1039
Claim Period
You have 180 days from the date of the draw to claim any prizes. Money left unclaimed after this period is transferred to the Education Lottery Account and used to fund public education programs.
Lost and Damaged Tickets
The SC Education Lottery treats lottery tickets as bearer instruments, meaning whoever is in possession of one can claim a prize with it. As a result, if you lose a Powerball ticket, you may not be able to claim any prizes that it wins. To help protect your ticket in the event of its loss or theft, you should sign the back of it straight after purchase and fill in your personal details in the space provided. That way, there is a greater chance that the ticket is returned to you if it gets lost. Prizes won on a damaged ticket may not be paid out if the ticket is too damaged to be validated.
Going Public
South Carolina is a state that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous, so if you win the Powerball jackpot you can choose whether to disclose your name to the public. If you opt to remain anonymous, the only details that will be known about your win are where the ticket was bought and how much the jackpot was worth.
Where Does the Money Go?
Over half of the money generated by lottery ticket sales in South Carolina is given back to players in the form of prizes. Another quarter of it is deposited in the Education Lottery Account to fund public education across the state. The remaining money is used to cover costs and commissions for retailers. The table below shows how the lottery’s revenue is split:
| Area of Spending | Percentage of Revenue |
|---|---|
| Prizes | 63.6% |
| Education Lottery Account | 25.0% |
| Retailer Commissions and Incentives | 6.9% |
| Operating Expenses | 3.3% |
| Direct Game Costs | 1.2% |
To date, more than $7 billion has been allocated to education in South Carolina. The majority of that money – 82 percent – has been used to fund higher education programs and scholarships. A further 17 percent has been used to fund K-12 programs, and the remaining one percent has gone to other community education programs. Funds are allocated by the state’s Executive Budget Office, Department of Administration, and not by the SC Education Lottery.
South Carolina Powerball Winners
South Carolina’s biggest ever win came in September 2013, when an anonymous man claimed $400 million. The winner’s identity was not disclosed, but it was revealed that he bought the winning ticket at the Murphy Express gas station in Columbia. He had stopped off to buy hot dog buns, but seeing that the store was sold out, he spent $20 on lottery tickets instead. It was not revealed whether he took the annuity or lump sum payout.
Back before the cross-sell expansion with Mega Millions, when Powerball was only played in 32 jurisdictions, a retired South Carolina state employee called Solomon Jackson Jr. won a jackpot worth just under $260 million. Despite disclosing his name to the public and engaging in some media appearances following the win, he was reluctant to share all the details about himself, or even whether he opted to take the annuity or lump sum payout. “I'm already retired, I've already got a good income, and God has blessed me, so I won't do a bunch with it. But somebody's going to be blessed”, Jackson said.
