Just stop somewhere — a coffee shop, the grocery store checkout, or your office — and listen.
Odds are, someone within earshot is hatching a plan to buy mansions and yachts as long as a city block. But of course, many are sure to explain, they will divert serious cash to charity after winning what lottery officials call the biggest lottery jackpot in history.
Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing will pay out at least $1.6 billion to winning jackpot ticket holders, if there are any, after Friday's already record-setting drawing ended with no ticket matching all six numbers. That number is "uncharted territory" for Mega Millions, lottery officials said.
The jackpot will increase to $2 billion for Friday's drawing, Gentry said, if there are no winners.
But the chances are rising that a winner or winners will emerge after the numbers are called.
By then, lottery officials estimate 75 percent of all number combinations will be purchased, Maryland Lottery and Gaming spokeswoman Carole Gentry told The Washington Post. With more than 300 million possible combinations, the odds of winning are 1 in 302,575,350.
More than one set of winning numbers can be bought, though that would mean two or more people would have to share the massive payout.
The fever has struck nationwide.
On Thursday, ahead of the last drawing, in California players were buying 200 tickets a second, the Associated Press reported.
Back on the east coast on Friday, about 9,100 tickets were purchased a minute in Maryland in a two hour window ahead of the drawing, state lottery officials said.
The Virginia Lottery projects sales after Friday's drawing through Tuesday's drawing will approach $19 million, lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Mullen said. In the sales peak, as many as 12,700 tickets will be sold per minute, Mullen said.
The deadline for buying tickets in most states is 10:45 p.m. EST, or 15 minutes ahead of the drawing, though some stop sales earlier.
What's my payout if I win?
The estimated cash option is about $905 million should a winner choose to take a one-time lump sum payment instead of annual payouts over 30 years, according to Mega Millions officials.
But that's before taxes. You'd get about half of that after state and federal taxes take a big bite of your winnings, the AP reported. The annual payouts would net a higher payout over time, but you would have to squirrel away enough money to buy, say, a struggling NFL team.
And if you take the annual payouts rather than the lump sum, you may even be an eventual billionaire. The website USAMega.com breaks down what your winnings could look like after taxes for your state. Even highly taxed states like New York show figures cresting a billion dollars after 30 years of payments.
Is it me, or are lottery jackpots huge these days?
It's not just you. Lottery officials count on enormous jackpots to draw in players who would ordinarily avoid participating, so last October they made two big changes. They doubled ticket prices to $2 — and tweaked the formula to make it easier to win smaller prizes but harder to win the jackpot.
Here's how Mega Millions used to work: Players picked five numbers from 1 to 75 and a Mega number from 1 to 15. The odds of winning the top prize were 1 in 258,890,850.
Since Mega Millions modified the formula, players now pick five numbers from 1 to 70 and a Mega number of 1 to 25. The odds of winning the jackpot are now 1 in 302,575,350.
In other words, reducing the number of balls for the first five numbers increases the chances of winning a smaller prize. But raising the number of Mega Balls makes it harder to win the jackpot. (You still win the big jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.)
Powerball made similar changes to its rules in 2015. That game itself is currently at a monster jackpot, though a small one relative to Mega Millions, at $620 million ahead of Wednesday's drawing.
Do people think they're going to win?
They do.
"I believe I already won," Joseph Rauch told Reuters, "believe I believe in the law of attraction. So what's meant to be is already gonna be."
Others are already self-read experts on how to deal with such an enormous and public prize. "I would incorporate myself as a business and become my own company," Gregory Baron said in New York City.
And even apparent fatalists are wandering to the corner store for a shot at the jackpot.
Hank Kattan is 75 years old. He does not expect to win at all. And yet.
"I'll never win, but you gotta give it a shot," he told Reuters. "I'd like to change my way of life."
Thanks to all the readers who tipped this story.
Hey, "You never know?" Worth the chance! Why not!
This is mind blowing; however, if I do not win tonight, I certainly will allow my mind to be blown by $2 BILLION on Friday. Lol. So, by Saturday I will be the world's first Billionaire Lottery winner. Who would have thunk it.
We will know if have a sole winners, a split jackpot, or a rollover by surely 6am east coast time.
Just imagine if they suddenly decided to draw two thousand $1,000,000 winners instead. lol
Here we go folks!
Good Luck To All!
It all depends on what numbers are drawn and if a ticket contains those numbers.
There were 15 $1 mil winners last draw. There may be more since so many people are playing now.
Cross everything you can and hope for the best.
The luck of the Irish to ya', dpoly1! Cheers!
Todd is definitely going to be burning some midnight oil tonight!
Do we need to chip in and get Todd a new keyboard after this week??
After this week he'll need a vacation too!
I hope his insurance covers carpal tunnel syndrome, all of those hours on a keyboard are brutal on the ol' nerves!
I wonder how many people are coming here from around the world to purchase Mega Millions lottery tickets, to try to win this enormous jackpot of at least $1.6 billion! Good luck Lottery Post members who have purchased Mega Millions lottery tickets! Just $2 and a dream!
.
OK, so I feel that there's going to be a winning ticket or two, or ten, or more, this evening, but already
I can feel it's not going to be mine
Good luck to the rest of you.
I'm going out on a limb and predicting I "WON'T" win the MM jackpot tonight. Now tomorrow night.... another story? lol
T-minus 45 minutes
The site will crash, just like it did a minute after the last drawing. lol
I think he put it into go slow mode.......
Last drawing I checked the numbers and I managed to write "I'm officially not the winner." and I think one other person squeezed a comment in before the whole thing went down. After a half hour or so I quit trying and went to bed. lol
T-30 minutes and counting
It will be 3am (PDT) before we know the results.
Any word on if all the combinations have been picked?
This is the time lottery officials need to be on conference call. They should know if there's a jackpot win by 1am est.
Please post the numbers when you get them!!
Hmm... that's funny, still appears to be working.
5 - 28 - 62 - 65 - 70 --- 5
I struck out! Won nothing!
Well 2B for Friday it is. No way someone picked those numbers.
Dagnabbit.....I Knew it...i knew i shoulda picked 5 and 70..... i knew it! ehhhhh.......and i knew hat one of the white balls was going to do double duty as the mega ball! i knew it!!
oh well
Lol. Unless it was the evil quick pick, but I agree it is rare that players use a white ball number as the mega ball as well.
Don't worry its rolling tonight
5 28 62 65 70 5
Bet at least one State Lottery site crashes or slows down.
i know delaware just upped it....that was TOO quick...u think they might be a little premature?
I was going to post the same thing.
Delaware is posting 2 bil with cash 1.14 bil
Too soon I would think.
Ugh, they did the same thing Friday night. It's possible it will roll, but completely ignore Delaware's website.
Getting the same info.
https://imgur.com/a/7kEz87m
1-59 has 60 combinations for QP's to work with, 60-70 has 11 combinations for QP's to work with, the chances of a QP choosing 3 out 5 numbers in the tiny range is very very low. There's a reason the 1.5 Billion PB in 2016 wasn't able to be won until the highest number was only in the 30's.
Think about it. A $990 million jackpot was raised to $1.6 billion or by $700 million, but the Delaware site is saying a $1.6 million pot will only increase by $400 million.
Not buying it.
fLASH! CALIFORNIA LOTTERY jUST TWEETS ..... No winners here
twitter{dot]com \ ca lottery
CA posted/tweeted fast. I wish all states were that organized! RI will probably figure it out around 5am... **insert sadness here**
1 down, 45 more jurisdictions to go.
you don't suppose... it coming from...RI, doya?
No Jackpot Winner in TX