Last week, many people across the nation flocked to stores to pick up a Mega Millions ticket for Friday’s drawing, in hopes that they had the golden ticket, one that would turn regular folks into multi-millionaires. The jackpot was $290 million prize.
Friday, the numbers were drawn: 6, 17, 19, 20, 21 with a Mega number 20 and unfortunately for ticket holders, no one had the winning ticket.
Everyone will have a chance to play again this week with an even bigger jackpot. This week, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot is expected to jump to $356 million for Tuesday’s drawing.
For players, there’s only a 1 in 176 million chance of winning the jackpot. But it sure would be sweet taking home the massive prize after paying only 1$ for the ticket.
According to the Mega Millions website, if someone were to win and take the prize in a lump sum, instead of over 20 years, the cash payoff would by $255.1 million. This week, the winner could be taking home more than the last Mega Millions winner; 81-year-old Rhode Island resident Louise White who took home $210 million.
Mega Millions holds the record for the largest jackpot in North American history with $390 million being the record set in March 2007.
The game first began back in 1996 as the “Big Game” with only six states participating. Over the years it took on a new name “Mega Millions” and was joined by other states including New Jersey, New York and Ohio.
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.
