States without a lottery: the tax on a prize won elsewhere
Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah sell no Powerball or Mega Millions tickets. Any jackpot their residents win comes from another state, so two sets of rules always apply.
- States without a lottery
- 5
- Example cash value
- $267.5 million
- Drawing
- October 21, 2026
Lump sum after all taxes
$154,380,320
42.3 % of the prize goes to tax: $113,119,680. $78,377,500 is withheld at the claim, the rest is due with the 2026 return.
| Prize this year | $267,500,000 |
| Federal income tax (top rate reached 37 %) | $98,942,180 |
| Idaho tax as a nonresident | $14,177,500 |
| Utah tax before credit | $11,903,750 |
| Credit for the Idaho tax | -$11,903,750 |
| Withheld when the prize is paid | $78,377,500 |
| Still to pay with the return | $34,742,180 |
Idaho taxes nonresidents on prizes of its lottery over $600. Utah credits the tax paid to Idaho, up to its own tax on the prize.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How we calculate · brackets, state rates and lottery rules read on official sites · estimate, not tax advice
Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah run no state lottery, so every lottery prize their residents receive was paid by another state's lottery. Two of them, Alaska and Nevada, have no personal income tax: the only state tax is the one the selling state charges nonresidents, nothing on a California or Washington ticket, $26,480,456 on an Oregon ticket for the cash value of the October 21, 2026 Powerball jackpot, $267.5 million. Alabama, Hawaii and Utah tax their residents on lottery prizes won in other states and credit the tax paid there, up to their own. A Utah resident with an Idaho ticket pays Idaho $14,177,500 and Utah nothing more; the same Utahn with a ticket from a state that does not tax nonresidents pays Utah $11,903,750. A Hawaii resident pays about $29,418,326 in state tax whichever state sold the ticket, because Hawaii's rates reach 11 %. Federal tax is the same in all five.
A resident of a no-lottery state, a ticket from elsewhere
State and local tax, ticket bought in Georgia
$13,375,000
| Prize this year | $267,500,000 |
| Federal income tax (top rate reached 37 %) | $98,942,180 |
| Georgia tax as a nonresident | $13,347,502 |
| Alabama tax before credit | $13,375,000 |
Five states, two situations
The reasons differ. Utah's constitution forbids any lottery (Utah Constitution, Art. VI, Sec. 27), Nevada's forbids a state lottery (Nevada Constitution) and Alabama's 1901 constitution bars lotteries in section 65 (Constitution of Alabama, 1901). Alaska and Hawaii appear among the states without a lottery in an Alaska Department of Revenue paper on the question (Alaska Department of Revenue, state lottery paper), an older document whose status this site has not seen contradicted. What matters for tax is the second split: whether the home state has an income tax at all.
| Home state | Income tax on a prize from another state | Credit for the other state's tax | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | yes, top rate 5 % | yes | Schedule CR (Form 40) |
| Alaska | no income tax | no | none |
| Hawaii | yes, top rate 11 % | yes | Schedule CR (credit for income taxes paid to other states and countries) |
| Nevada | no income tax | no | none |
| Utah | yes, top rate 4.45 % | yes | TC-40A credit (Utah Code 59-10-1003, tax paid to another state) |
Alaska and Nevada: only the selling state counts
Alaska has no individual income tax (Alaska Department of Revenue, personal income) and Nevada's constitution rules one out. A resident of either state who holds a winning ticket from another state owes state tax only if that state taxes nonresidents on its lottery prizes. On the $267.5 million cash value, a Nevadan with a California ticket pays no state tax at all, because California does not tax California Lottery winnings for anyone, and keeps $168,557,820 after federal tax. An Alaskan with a Washington ticket is in the same place, $168,557,820. The same Alaskan with an Oregon ticket pays Oregon $26,480,456: Oregon taxes nonresidents on Oregon Lottery prizes over $600 per ticket and has nothing to credit against, since Alaska levies nothing (Oregon Publication OR-17).
Alabama, Hawaii and Utah: home tax, then a credit
These three tax residents on all income, lottery prizes from other states included. Each gives a credit for income tax paid to the other state on the same income, limited to its own tax on it. The result is that the resident pays about the higher of the two state taxes.
| Resident of, ticket from | Selling state tax | Home tax after credit | State tax in all | Kept after all taxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama, Georgia | $13,347,502 | $27,498 | $13,375,000 | $155,182,820 |
| Alabama, Florida | $0 | $13,375,000 | $13,375,000 | $155,182,820 |
| Utah, Idaho | $14,177,500 | $0 | $14,177,500 | $154,380,320 |
| Utah, Nevada | $0 | $11,903,750 | $11,903,750 | $156,654,070 |
| Hawaii, California | $0 | $29,418,326 | $29,418,326 | $139,139,494 |
| Hawaii, Oregon | $26,480,456 | $2,937,870 | $29,418,326 | $139,139,494 |
The Alabama pair shows the credit at work: Georgia taxes the nonresident and Alabama, taxing this income at its top rate of 5 %, credits nearly all of it, so the total matches the Florida case where Alabama alone collects (Alabama Form 40 booklet). The Utah pair shows the limit. Idaho's tax on the prize is larger than Utah's flat 4.45 %, and Utah's credit stops at its own tax, so the Idaho ticket costs $2,273,750 more than a ticket from a state that does not tax nonresidents (Utah Code 59-10-1003). Hawaii's rates are high enough that the Oregon tax is fully credited and Hawaii collects the rest; the selling state changes who gets the money, not the total. Hawaii's 2026 schedule could not be read on an official page, so the 2025 one is applied (Hawaii Form N-11 instructions).
Small prizes and the annuity
The same logic holds far below the jackpot. Idaho exempts prizes under $600 (Idaho Code 67-7439) and Oregon subtracts winnings of $600 or less per ticket, so a modest prize from either state usually reaches only the home return. For a resident of Alabama, Hawaii or Utah that prize is still income on the home return, with no credit to claim because no other state taxed it. A winner who keeps the 30-payment annuity meets the same two tests every year: each payment is taxed by the home state of that year, and New York, for one, says in Publication 140-W that its nonresident rule follows each installment of a New York prize.
What the selling state withholds
The lottery that pays the prize withholds under its own rules. Federal withholding is 24 % of a prize over $5,000 everywhere. State withholding follows the selling state: Georgia withholds 4.99 % from a nonresident's prize over $5,000, Oregon 8 % on prizes of $1,500 or more, California nothing. An Alaskan or Nevadan who was withheld by a state that does tax nonresidents settles it on that state's nonresident return; there is no home return to file. For a resident of Alabama, Hawaii or Utah, both returns are needed, the nonresident one first. The nonresident lottery tax by state gives each threshold, and the credit for taxes paid to another state explains the limit.
The figures are estimates from the 2026 rules and the official texts cited, not tax advice. Traveling to play is a cost like any other; if playing stops being fun, help is free and confidential at 1-800-MY-RESET.