After there were no winning tickets from the drawing last Friday night, the multi-state Mega Millions lottery has ballooned up to $449 million.
The massive jackpot now ranks as the seventh largest ever in U.S. history, according to officials. The jackpot will be the largest since a $448.4 million Powerball prize won by a New Jersey family on May 7, according to ABC. The jackpot has been increasing for 33 consecutive drawings without a winner as the last jackpot was hit on March 8.
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Upon hitting the jackpot, the winner either has the choice to take an immediate payout in the amount of $313 million, or can take the larger sum to be paid out in yearly installments over 30 years.
Tickets for the Mega Millions lottery cost $1 per play. Players must pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five different numbers from 1 to 75 and one number from 1 to 15 and match all six with the numbers from the drawing in order to win the jackpot. Mega Millions jackpots start at $15 million and grow by a minimum of $5 million per draw each time that no one hits the winning jackpot. Drawings are done at 11 p.m. on every Tuesday and Friday.
The odds of buying a winning ticket with all six matching numbers are only 1 in 259 million – compared to the odds of a person being struck by lightning in their lifetime at roughly 1 in 12,000, according to ABC News.
If no one wins on Tuesday night’s drawing the jackpot will skyrocket to $508 million, and give the winner the immediate payout of $357.7.
Do you plan on purchasing Mega Millions lottery tickets?
