Lottery Winnings - Annuities vs Lump Sum

Since this thread got revived.

I wouldn’t trust myself to manage the money directly - but I can hire someone to do that. There are an awful lot of investment opportunities which open up to you with that much money, and you’d need advice on balancing your portfolio.

Age hasn’t been mentioned much. I’m old enough now to probably take the lump sum. It isn’t that the annuity wouldn’t be enough to retire on, but that in 30 years (or even 20) I’d be old enough to not spend the money coming in even f I was still alive. Taking the money now, spending more of it now when I can enjoy it, and figuring out how to give a bunch to our kids now not later would be preferable.
If not, do the math like JohnLottery did. An answer based on pure intuition is pretty useless.

Don’t they pay tax on the ticket instead?