You better buy your lottery ticket now! Friday’s drawing will be a massive $290 million.
Although there’s only a 1 in 176 million chance that you’ll be the winner, it will be the best $1 you’ve ever spent if your numbers match. And you’ll be following the last Mega Millions winner, 81-year-old Rhode Island resident Louise White who took home $210 million in becoming a multi millionaire (if you aren’t one already).
While it’s not going to be the biggest jackpot, talk about TGIF for the winner, it’s a huge amount of money that would have most anyone living comfortably for years and years—It’s being reported that 60 people missed the big win last drawing by just one number.
In recent years, winners have taken home even more massive amounts.
Mega Millions holds the record for the largest jackpot in North American history with $390 million being the record set in March 2007.
Philly.com reported that the only other people to win a lottery that paid more cash were two winners, one from Idaho and the other from Washington state. The two split $240 million from their Mega Million win that they hit on Jan. 4, 2011.
The game began back in 1996 as the Big Game with only six states participating: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia. Over the years the game took on a new name “Mega Millions” as states like New Jersey, New York and Ohio became members. In recent years, Washington, Texas and California joined in the fun and the game became the country’s most widely played multi-state jackpot game.
In 2010, 23 more state lotteries joined Mega Millions as an historic cross-selling agreement between Mega Millions and Powerball went into effect. Mega Millions is now played in 44 jurisdictions: 42 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
