The jackpot in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery game is growing even larger — the largest jackpot in nine months — and players nationwide are all trying to be the one that claims it all.
More than 1.4 million tickets sold for the Tuesday, December 9 drawing won a prize. Since no ticket matched all five lotto numbers plus the Gold Mega Ball to win the jackpot, the jackpot chase continues for the Friday, December 12, 2008 drawing, which will have an estimated jackpot of $207 million.
The winning numbers in Friday's drawing were: 11, 12, 26, 31, 33 and the Mega Ball number was 27. The lottery results video is available at USA Mega.
The Texas Megaplier was 2.
Even though no one matched all six numbers and won the jackpot on Tuesday, there were several lottery players who came within striking distance of winning the jackpot. A total of 18 tickets matched the first five numbers and only missed the Mega Ball number.
Those second-place tickets were sold in California (4), Georgia (1), Michigan (1), New Jersey (1), New York (3), Ohio (4), Texas (2), Virginia (1), and Washington (1). 14 of the 18 tickets will receive prizes of $250,000, but the 4 second-place tickets sold in California will receive $91,873 each.
Also, a total of 89 Mega Millions players area eligible to redeem the 3rd-prize of $10,000 for matching four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball. However, 2 of those winners, from California, will receive $50,112 each.
Friday's jackpot has been growing since October 21, when Mega Millions had its most recent jackpot winner. The jackpot has now rolled 14 times without a winner.
Mega Millions is played in 12 states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
The Mega Millions Lottery drawings are held every Tuesday and Friday night's at 11PM Eastern Time and the winning numbers are available within minutes at Lottery Post, USA Mega (www.usamega.com), or on local TV stations in each Mega Millions market.
What a nice Christmas it would be,
with the winning #'s under the tree!
Is there any chance that this Mega Millions jackpot will continue to roll over untill New Year Eve 2009?
LMAO!!
If it did, the jackpot by then would probably reach about $700 BILLION... hit that by yourself and you would basically be the government's BEST friend.
I'm going to predict that this jackpot will be hit on 12/23.... with some fairly odd numbers.... my guess is 17-19-35-37-39 with the MB being 45.
Just a guess :D
Kris
Maybe the US can buy a lottery ticket for the buyout?
There's always a chance that it will roll. There's a chance it could roll until New Year's eve 2010, but each subsequent roll reduces the chance significantly. Even with the large sales we should see if it continues to roll, the most likely outcome for each of the next 3 drawings is a roll, but the chance of all of them rolling is probably less than 25%. A 4th roll would almost certainly take us past the $400 million mark, sales would get absolutely insane, and the chances for the next couple of rollovers would probably be in the 30% range (and multiple winners becoming very likely). Put it all together, and the chances of seeing the 5 rolls it would take to give us a monster jackpot on the 30th are probably about 2 to 4%.
Assuming NoCompLottos' "guess" of 700 Billion isn't a typo, there's not a chance in the world, but I wouldn't be surprised if it passed 700 Million if it does roll until then. Another roll just might reach the billion mark, if the terminals can handle that kind of volume. Even at the half billion point, the chances of being the only winner will start to get pretty slim.
Of course, whatever happens will depend on the numbers played and the numbers that are drawn, but somebody's going to have a very happy ending for 2008 or a very happy start to 2009.
i agree, i couldnt sleep sleep last night so i checked the drawing numbers, when i saw no one won i decided to drive to the gas station to get a ticket as soon as MM sales were allowed, hopefully in this case the early bird gets the worm..a big fat one, lol
I doubt it will go on for that long. More and more people are going to start buying tickets.
Good luck All on the Mega Game! Wow I sure hope a couple of us win it.
I had 11 12 and 27.....Darn close. 26 and 33 were on the next row. Well must try harder.
Friday and will use Gail Howard wheel again and perhaps I can do better. I have been using her system for 10 years now with one cash 5 win in Virginia....Nothing yet in Texas. There is the Texas Two Step game that is sinilar to the Cash 5 it has 4 numbers and the power ball to make 5
Lots of Luck All on the Mega Millions
Joey
With so many near misses, it will probably be won this Friday. Extra workplace lottery pools are being created as we speak. A lot of players are hoping some of that jackpot will be part of their Christmas money.
Assuming none of the 5+0 winers had the same mega ball, the "many near misses" would suggest that perhaps 18/46ths of the possible combinations were played, which is about 1 in 3. That matches almost perfectly with sales, which would have been 32% of possible combinations if there were no repeats. With projected sales only slightly higher, the probabilty is 2 in 3 that it will roll on Friday.
With the exception of the 33, all of the winning numbers in last night's drawing were birthday numbers. If Friday's drawing is all birthday numbers then the most likely outcome may be a winner, but it will still be close to a 50/50 chance. Mostly high numbers will favor a roll, but overall the chances of a roll are somewhere around 65 to 70%.
You lottery post genusises still didn't take down the mega jackpot? CMON man! this friday lets go hoo rah.
I think it will get pass $300,000,000, but I don't think it will make it pass $400,000,000
I don't think anything just wanna get it.
I just wonder why all of these folks with "sure fire" lotto systems havent won it yet....