MegaMillions Mania is Back Again! While the chance of a single ticket matching all six numbers is minuscule — 1 in 302 million for Mega Millions — it’s still worth considering how you would handle such a windfall if you beat the odds. So until you win, let’s investigate Mega Millions and Lotteries.

How MegaMillions Works

MegaMillions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 pm ET.

  • Five white balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 70
  • one gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 25.
  • You win if the numbers on one row of your ticket match the numbers of the balls drawn on that date.
  • There are nine ways to win prizes, from $2 to the jackpot.
  • The money is added to the next drawing if no one wins the jackpot.

Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is estimated at $1.25 billion, with a lump-sum cash value of $602.5 million. And based on past multi-state lottery jackpots, that estimate may get a lot bigger by the time the drawing kicks off Friday night.

The Facts About MegaMillions

MegaMillions Mania Is Back Again!
  • You can play Mega Millions in 45 states plus the District of Columbia and the U. S. Virgin Islands, a total of 47 jurisdictions.
  • The history of Mega Millions is as exciting as playing the game! Following a record $363 million Big Game jackpot in 2000, interest in multi-state games was at an all-time high. And as interest in the multi-state games grew, so did the participants. In May 2002, New York and Ohio joined Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Virginia to create Mega Millions! Sales for the country’s newest multi-state jackpot game began on May 15, 2002
  • On January 31, 2010, 23 more state lotteries joined Mega Millions as a historic cross-selling agreement between Mega Millions and Powerball went into effect.

Todd Northrop at LotteryPost.com says, “The most commonly-heard phrase this week might be, “Did you get MegaMillions tickets?” That’s because nobody won the Mega Millions multi-state lottery drawing Tuesday night, sending the Friday jackpot to heights only seen three times before in history.” His article called “$1.025 BILLION Mega Millions jackpot is 4th largest the world has ever seen, the Cash value is $602.5 million” is a comprehensive look at State Lotteries, specifically MegaMillions.

He also includes the Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time (here are the Top 5)

  1. Powerball: $1.5864 billion, Jan. 13, 2016 (19 rollovers, starting at $40 million) – California, Florida, Tennessee
  2. Mega Millions: $1.537 billion, October 23, 2018 (25 rollovers, starting at $40 million) – South Carolina
  3. Mega Millions: $1.05 billion, January 22, 2021 (36 rollovers, starting at $20 million) – Michigan
  4. Mega Millions: $1.025 billion, July 29, 2022 (29 rollovers, starting at $20 million) – Preliminary estimate, not won yet
  5. Powerball: $768.4 million, Mar. 27, 2019 (25 rollovers, starting at $40 million) – Wisconsin

Ten Mega Lottery Facts About Your Chances

MegaMillions Mania Is Back Again!

While it is true – “You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play,” what chances do you have to win? You have a better chance of the following happening instead of winning Powerball:

  1. Dying from an asteroid strike: 1 in 74,817,414
  2. Getting killed by a terrorist act in the United States: 1 in 10,000,000
  3. Getting murdered during a trip to the Grand Canyon: 1 in 8,156,000
  4. Dying from chronic constipation: 1 in 2,215,900
  5. Becoming a movie star: 1 in 1,505,000
  6. Getting struck by lightning: 1 in 1,101,000
  7. Birthing identical quadruplets – Odds: 13,000,000 to 1
  8. Becoming an astronaut – Odds: 12,100,000 to 1
  9. Getting a royal flush in the first hand of poker – Odds: 649,740 to 1
  10. Finding a four-leaf clover – Odds: 10,000 to 1

You Can’t Handle the Truth…About Mega Lotteries

First, Lottery results are entirely random, so no one can control the outcome. It is impossible to predict a number beyond its overall probability of appearing among the winning numbers. A random guess has just as much chance at winning as playing birthdays, anniversary dates, or any personal system. Players can’t control lottery outcomes using various methods to forecast winning numbers.

Second, buying more tickets does not increase your chances. Each ticket is like one play on a slot machine – one event. THE ODDS DON’T CHANGE! YOU DON’T HAVE A BETTER CHANCE IF MORE OR fewer PEOPLE BUY TICKETS, OR WHATEVER THE JACKPOT IS!

The four winning-est numbers are 26, 41, 22, and 16. However, there is no reason for them to come up or ever appear again – remember, random.

5% of Jackpot winners used Quick Picks for their numbers.

Links to New England State Lotteries.

Mass Lottery, New Hampshire Lottery, Connecticut Lottery, Maine Lottery, Rhode Island Lottery, Vermont Lottery

Related Post – Factual Guide to State Lotteries

Summary

So, it’s true – You Can’t Win If You Don’t Play. But remember, chance controls the outcome.

That’s all for now. Next, I must rush down to Lotto Mart to buy a ticket.

Binbin