What happens after someone wins $1.8 billion?

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery is on a hot streak. In the last six months, the Natural State has been in the spotlight when over $2 billion in prizes were won by just two big winners. The lucky run started on Christmas Eve, 2025, when one person won the entire $1.8 billion Powerball prize and continued just a few months later when another player won a $250.8 million Powerball jackpot.

Whenever someone wins a big jackpot, the focus is usually on how much they won, where they bought the ticket, and how they intend to spend all of that loot. However, what few people consider is what it's like to pay out someone who just won nearly $2 billion. A state lottery has to verify the winner, handle the media attention, and figure out a way to transfer a ten-figure prize into someone's bank account.

We spoke with Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Executive Director Sharon Strong in an exclusive interview to learn what happens when someone walks into her office carrying a small piece of paper worth billions.

Q: Tell us what it's like when a winner arrives in your office with a ticket worth $1.8 billion? How do you manage that situation? It sounds kind of insane when you think about it.

A: It's actually very much insane. I think it all kind of goes back to the initial point when we were informed that the winning ticket was sold in Arkansas. That's when the insanity started. It was on Christmas Eve night, which added an additional layer of craziness. There was a lot of media attention to manage, making sure that we were communicating internally and aligned on our messaging, and communicating with the retailer that sold the ticket was all really important.

There was a period of time before the winner came forward that [sic] the media wanted to run stories every day. In all of the media interviews, I kept saying:

"Whoever the winner is, please make sure to talk to your attorney or financial advisor. Before you come in, please make sure to have a plan for what you want to do with this money."

Q: How do you manage the winner when they finally do appear with their ticket?

A: We have a high-tier winner process in place. This was an unusually gigantic jackpot, the second largest in history, but we’ve had other large jackpots, too. We really prefer when our players make an appointment in advance of arrival, but we do have a process where our Claims Center will notify the director-level staff that a high-tier winner has come in to claim their prize.

The director of marketing, the director of sales, and the director of security will get notified to meet the winner, if they want to get their picture taken, that kind of thing. We love to know player habits – if they play the same numbers every time, if they prefer scratch or draw games, if they are loyal to one retailer. If the winner wants to remain anonymous, of course, they can.

In this particular scenario, there was a plan in place ahead of time for when the person arrived at our office and presented the ticket to be claimed. It all went really well logistically, but I was nervous thinking through how it was going to play out. I was a prosecutor for twenty years before I was appointed to this role. My kids like to say, "Mom, you always think about worst-case scenarios." I think when you are in law enforcement for that long, it's just sort of a natural thing that happens, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it.

Q: How do you make sure the winner is safe when they’re collecting a ten-figure prize?

A: We have law enforcement on staff, and we are physically located across the street from the Attorney General's office, which also has law enforcement. I made arrangements to ensure that whenever the winner contacted us, there would be an appropriate law-enforcement presence, that we had a way to get them out of the building safely and securely, and that their anonymity would be protected.

Q: What’s the first thing you did when you knew there was a billion-dollar winner in your state?

A: The Director of Marketing and I traveled to the retail location that sold the ticket, very early in the morning on the 26th, the day after Christmas. Media outlets had notified us that they were going to be broadcasting from the retailer, including the Today Show, ABC, the New York Times, and CNN. We arrived at about four in the morning, and I did a lot of interviews before the sun came up that day.

Q: I understand that every winner must be verified, but is there a more extensive process when someone wins a large prize? Can you walk us through how you verify that someone is the rightful winner?

A: It's a pretty extensive verification process. With any ticket, we go through the same process. Is this a real ticket? Is this the correct paper? I think a lot of people might not realize that every lottery ticket is trackable, traceable, whether it's a scratch-off or a draw game. We can tell details down to the paper roll assigned to each retailer. There's a process that our security team goes through to verify the ticket. For multi-state games, such as Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association is part of that verification process as well.

Q: Once you've verified that someone is a winner, how do you actually give them $1.8 billion? It's not like you can just write a check for that much.

A: Well, you actually can write a check for that much. And that's what we did. The lump-sum payout was over $800 million, and the after-tax amount was around $600 million. They received a check, a very large check.

Q: You actually gave them a paper check for $600 million?

A: Yes. There were conversations around, "Should we issue a wire? Should we issue a check? What is the most secure? What's easier?” The FDIC sets limits on how much money can be transferred at one time. The banking institution has its own internal limits. There are wire limits. There were lots of conversations around the logistics of all of that. In this particular case, it was ultimately decided that they would receive a paper check because that made the most sense for their particular situation. A few months after this win, we had another Powerball win that was $208 million, and for that winner, we issued a wire.

Q: What happens once you give them the check? It's not like you can walk into a Chase and open a checking account for $600 million.

A: The winner had it all planned out ahead of their acceptance of the funds. It was actually very seamless. There was a lot of pre-planning involved with our banking partner, our finance team, the winner's attorneys and financial advisors, and others. This winner was prepared.

Q: What is the best way to prepare if you win a massive prize?

A: I think consulting with an attorney and a financial advisor to have trust accounts set up is the priority. Everybody's different in what they value, whether they want to buy a new house, a vacation home, set up trusts for their children or family members… I feel comfortable knowing they did it the right way, and I just hope all lottery winners do the same.

Q: One of the hot-button issues in the lottery right now is the use of courier services. Some states have embraced them, but others have banned them. Right now, they're legal in Arkansas for draw games.

A: The decision to bring on couriers in Arkansas was a decision that was made before I was appointed, but they've been really good partners for us. Their app allows for lottery tickets to be purchased, and the courier holds the ticket in a secure area until the player either comes to the physical location to retrieve it or the courier will send [sic] it to the player. We don't have digital play channels here in Arkansas. And so, this is a good alternative for players to purchase lottery tickets more conveniently.

Q: We've heard stories of courier services buying stores and using them to print the tickets they're selling. How do you prevent that kind of abuse of the system in Arkansas?

A: Arkansas allows for courier services in a regulated, but limited capacity. The courier must work through a licensed retailer. They must have a brick-and-mortar location that sells items other than lottery tickets. Couriers go through the same licensing process as our other retailers and are subject to the same rules and regulations. In addition to that process, we require the courier to sign an agreement that contractually obligates them to additional regulations.

Q: Lottery buyouts are another big issue. There was the famous Lotto Texas scandal, and then another smaller buyout in Idaho last year. Is that something that concerns you?

A: We have thresholds in place where the system will notify us if sales are unusually large at any given location. This kind of black swan, or bulk purchasing, is often a topic of conversation amongst lottery directors. We have not experienced any of that here, but that's not to say it won't happen. I'm sure they will come at some point, but we're not inviting them. My highest priority is maintaining the integrity of the lottery.

Q: Every state has a different style of playing the lottery. What are the most popular games in Arkansas?

A: One thing that's unique about Arkansas is that scratch-offs make up over 80% of our sales, which is considerably more than most other states. Our incredible product and sales teams launch new scratch-off games every month. Players love seeing the new games and ticket designs each month; it really keeps them engaged.

Q: You mentioned that you were a prosecutor for 20 years before you were appointed Lottery Executive Director. How did you go from being a prosecutor to running the lottery?

A: Great question! It seems like a strange career trajectory, but the longer I'm in this role, the more convinced I become that prosecutors make really good lottery directors, for various reasons: First, prosecutors are highly skilled in negotiations, which is very helpful as a lottery director when negotiating vendor contracts. Second, we're trained to think about fraud and protection from risk. And finally, prosecutors are trained storytellers, whether that's in front of a judge or a jury. In this role, I get to tell the incredible story of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and all of the positive benefits that our business provides for our players, retailers, communities, scholarship recipients, and ultimately our state.

Q: How does the Arkansas lottery benefit the people of Arkansas, even if they never play?

A: In the 16 years that we've been in business, we've raised over $1.6 billion to fund scholarships for Arkansas students. Our scholarships give Arkansas students an incentive to stay in-state and earn their education here. The lottery is a self-sustaining state agency. That means that we don't utilize taxpayer dollars or receive financial support from any state funding source. We operate our business and fund our scholarships with revenue we earn from ticket sales.

We generate approximately $600 million in revenue a year, and 92 cents of every dollar that we earn stays in the state. Most people don't think of a lottery as an economic driver, but our business circulates hundreds of millions of dollars back into Arkansas' economy every year.

Q: Do you have a favorite winner story?

A: Every week, I am amazed at the amount [sic] of winners that come through our doors and at the life-changing aspect of what we do. I remember my first week here, I received an email that a high-tier winner was at the Claims Center, so I went to meet them. The winner had his young son with him, probably around the same age as my son, 5 or 6 years old. I asked him, “What are you planning to do with your winnings?”

He said, "Well, we're going to go to Disneyland." They must not have discussed this prior to my asking, because the little boy was so excited, he started jumping up and down, and then hugged his dad's leg and wouldn't let go. Since that first week, I've met many more winners, but I think I'll always remember that first one because in the first few days in this role, trying to learn this industry, seeing how it personally affects our players will never be lost on me.

Whether a player uses their winnings to go to Disneyland, help support a family member, buy a car, make needed repairs on your [sic] home, pursue a college degree…What we do is life-changing, and it's incredibly rewarding to play a part in bringing that positivity to people's lives.