There're more than 400 million reasons to buy a lottery ticket - or two - this week.
No one has won the Mega Millions or the Powerball jackpots since last year, making the combined jackpots swell to a staggering $420 million.
The multistate bout of bad luck means it could be a very happy Valentine's Day for Mega players in New York, New Jersey and 10 other states when tonight's jackpot of $120 million is drawn.
But the Mega payout pales next to the Powerball top prize, which is now pegged at $300 million. The drawing will be at 10:59 p.m. tomorrow.
Powerball is played in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and 26 other states. Both games require matching five numbers and a bonus ball.
The last Powerball jackpot win came Dec. 14 when a Des Moines man won $113.2 million. And the Mega Millions jackpot hasn't had a winner since seven co-workers in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., won a record $315 million Mega payout Nov. 15.
On the East Coast, the weekend snowstorm was taking a toll on Mega Millions ticket sales.
"Few customers so far," said Mike Patel of Midtown Newsstand at 520 Eighth Ave in New York City.
"But we expect a big push" before tonight's drawing, he added.
Mega millions has had four winners since the $315 million winner on 11-15-05. On 11-29-05 two winners of $35 million 1 in California and 1 in Michigan. On 12-30-05 1 winner of $88 million in California. On 1-6-06 1 winner in Ohio of $15 million. Source is the USA MEGA news archive section.-weshar75
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
That would be something, wouldn't it? Wonder what people would think of that?
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
I was just thinking that same thing....if one person won both jackpots how ironic that would be,,,it would be like the numbers 1,2,3,4,5+6 coming out
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
KY Floyd
So, are you saying that MM and PB have a maximum jackpot amount OR maximum rollover amount?
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
KY Floyd
So, are you saying that MM and PB have a maximum jackpot amount OR maximum rollover amount?
No and yes. Sort of.
I specifically referred to PB's cap that was instituted about a year (?) ago. That cap is specifically imposed by the rules. When the annuity jackpot reaches the highest amount it has reached previously the rollovers are limited to an increase of 25 million. The current maximum is 340, so if nobody wins the next draw the most it will be for Saturday is 365. The next draw could be less than 365 if ticket sales aren't high enough. My guess is that the amount advertised if it rolls over will be 360, but they really pull those numbers out of thin air based on a guess, and they always pick multiples of 5 when it gets this high. They may well advertise it as 365 since that's the cap.
MM doesn't have a cap that's imposed by the rules, but as a practical matter there's definitely a limit to how many tickets they can sell for a given draw. At some point every single ticket machine in the system would be spitting out QP's as fast as the machines run, so the hardware imposes a limit, but that's probably at least a few hundred million tickets even for a Friday draw. There's also a limit to how many tickets players will (or can) buy, and that varies with the size of the jackpot. So far bigger jackpots have always sold more tickets but there's some limit on how many tickets the players will buy regardless of jackpot size. So far we haven't found out what that is. People get irrational when the jackpots go over 200 million, so there's no telling what would happen if it gets to 500 or a billio, other than some level of chaos.
AFAIK the rules don't impose a limit on the size of the jackpots for either game, so in theory there is no limit to how big the jackpots can get. The laws of probability allow the game to rollover an infinite number of times, so in theory we could see a jackpot of 5, 10, or 20 billion dollars. Of course you can also roll a pair of dice and get boxcars 100 times in a row, but it's very unlikely.
The MUSL says they slow the growth of record Powerball jackpots to increase the number of times they can claim a record jackpot, since some players only play when there is a "record," and if Powerball hit a record of $700 million, it would miss chances to have records at $400 million, $500 million, etc. However, what the MUSL overlooked is if they don't take the records away from themselves, Mega Millions will, since MM does not slow the growth of its record jackpots.
The MUSL says they slow the growth of record Powerball jackpots to increase the number of times they can claim a record jackpot, since some players only play when there is a "record," and if Powerball hit a record of $700 million, it would miss chances to have records at $400 million, $500 million, etc. However, what the MUSL overlooked is if they don't take the records away from themselves, Mega Millions will, since MM does not slow the growth of its record jackpots.
always heard there was alimit by law. Don't know what law, or the limit, just heard. You're saying nether hava a limit, other then volume?
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
Mega millions has had four winners since the $315 million winner on 11-15-05. On 11-29-05 two winners of $35 million 1 in California and 1 in Michigan. On 12-30-05 1 winner of $88 million in California. On 1-6-06 1 winner in Ohio of $15 million. Source is the USA MEGA news archive section.-weshar75
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
That would be something, wouldn't it? Wonder what people would think of that?
Well good luck to all the players playing MM and PB for real. It would be a shock if both MM and PB continues to roll.
And even more of a shock if the same person wins both MM and PB!!! An eerie feeling came over me when I read your post. It is possible---and what a long shot! Ooooohhh!
I was just thinking that same thing....if one person won both jackpots how ironic that would be,,,it would be like the numbers 1,2,3,4,5+6 coming out
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
The stroy is wrong true no one has won in 2006 yet, but the last MM jackpot winners was on 12/30/05 the $1.00 QP
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
KY Floyd
So, are you saying that MM and PB have a maximum jackpot amount OR maximum rollover amount?
weshar: I'm sure you're right about that. I posted the story without doing much in terms of fact-checking.
Maybe you didn't have your morning coffee before you posted it? As soon as I read it I thought there's no way it took 3 months for the jackpot to reach 120 million, so I checked. All of the recent jackpots in the 250+ range have taken about two months to get there. Powerball would be limited by the rollover cap, but a 3 month dry spell with Megamillions will probably mean the first billion dollar jackpot, or it will show us that the number of tickets sold stops going up shortly past the 300 million mark. The recent $315 mega jackpot took 17 draws, with the last rollover adding 53 million. 3 months would mean another 10 rollovers, so even if it went up "only" 50 million for each rollover it would top out at 765, or a cash payout of about $450 million. Even in a high tax state you'd have a good chance of clearing something over 250 after taxes. If Powerball rolls another 9 times (it's already at draw #18) it will reach about 565, with a cash payout of about $275 million. Not nearly as impressive as Mega, but I think I could scrape by. At the most, the chances of 9 more rollovers is perhaps 2%, and that's assuming that sales don't go up. Of course, I'd be willing to wait another month if I have to.
KY Floyd
So, are you saying that MM and PB have a maximum jackpot amount OR maximum rollover amount?
No and yes. Sort of.
I specifically referred to PB's cap that was instituted about a year (?) ago. That cap is specifically imposed by the rules. When the annuity jackpot reaches the highest amount it has reached previously the rollovers are limited to an increase of 25 million. The current maximum is 340, so if nobody wins the next draw the most it will be for Saturday is 365. The next draw could be less than 365 if ticket sales aren't high enough. My guess is that the amount advertised if it rolls over will be 360, but they really pull those numbers out of thin air based on a guess, and they always pick multiples of 5 when it gets this high. They may well advertise it as 365 since that's the cap.
MM doesn't have a cap that's imposed by the rules, but as a practical matter there's definitely a limit to how many tickets they can sell for a given draw. At some point every single ticket machine in the system would be spitting out QP's as fast as the machines run, so the hardware imposes a limit, but that's probably at least a few hundred million tickets even for a Friday draw. There's also a limit to how many tickets players will (or can) buy, and that varies with the size of the jackpot. So far bigger jackpots have always sold more tickets but there's some limit on how many tickets the players will buy regardless of jackpot size. So far we haven't found out what that is. People get irrational when the jackpots go over 200 million, so there's no telling what would happen if it gets to 500 or a billio, other than some level of chaos.
AFAIK the rules don't impose a limit on the size of the jackpots for either game, so in theory there is no limit to how big the jackpots can get. The laws of probability allow the game to rollover an infinite number of times, so in theory we could see a jackpot of 5, 10, or 20 billion dollars. Of course you can also roll a pair of dice and get boxcars 100 times in a row, but it's very unlikely.
The MUSL says they slow the growth of record Powerball jackpots to increase the number of times they can claim a record jackpot, since some players only play when there is a "record," and if Powerball hit a record of $700 million, it would miss chances to have records at $400 million, $500 million, etc. However, what the MUSL overlooked is if they don't take the records away from themselves, Mega Millions will, since MM does not slow the growth of its record jackpots.
The MUSL says they slow the growth of record Powerball jackpots to increase the number of times they can claim a record jackpot, since some players only play when there is a "record," and if Powerball hit a record of $700 million, it would miss chances to have records at $400 million, $500 million, etc. However, what the MUSL overlooked is if they don't take the records away from themselves, Mega Millions will, since MM does not slow the growth of its record jackpots.
always heard there was alimit by law. Don't know what law, or the limit, just heard. You're saying nether hava a limit, other then volume?
Now it's $535 million between the two games. Not counting the PB Match 5 pool.