Mega Millions lottery jackpot increases to $18 million

Mar 4, 2006, 2:10 pm (22 comments)

Mega Millions

The jackpot in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery grew to $18 million Saturday.

None of the tickets sold for Friday's $12 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Mega Ball. The next drawing will be Tuesday.

There were five second-prize winners from Friday night's drawing: 1 from Georgia, 2 from Illinois, 1 from Maryland, and 1 from Texas.  Each ticket matched all five lotto numbers but not the Mega Ball number to win $250,000.

Also, 32 players matched four of the five lotto numbers, plus the Mega Ball number. Those tickets are each worth $10,000.

The winning numbers from Friday's drawing were: 25, 29, 38, 39 and 46. The Mega Ball number was 4.

The Texas Megaplier was 4.

Lottery Post Staff

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libra926

HAPPY SATURDAY..........3/4/2006

what's the matter......afraid to make that an even..$$$$$20,000,000.00?????...

It would be more motivating if we raised it, a couple of mill.......

Wink

Chewie

Bide your time, let the foolhardy build it up slowly - then B-A-M, you can strike!

Down's avatarDown

i don't get what the big deal is with the MM's jackpot at $18 million.  $18 Million is not that much money in the lottery world, and especially MM's

Chewie

i don't get what the big deal is with the MM's jackpot at $18 million.  $18 Million is not that much money in the lottery world, and especially MM's

It is not the amount, it is the number of players involved.  With the new matrix, on both PB and MM, you need players to find a winner.  The more players, the better chance of a winner.  $18M doesn't draw out the big players, just the die-hards.  Not to say that luck won't strike, but, generally she sleeps until the amount reaches over $100M.

noahproblem

Wake me when the cash value hits $50 million - until then:

 

SleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleepSleep

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

I guess the fact is that this is a record....Mega Millions has never been this high after one roll.  The sales for this past drawing were exceptional for the minimum $12,000,000 jackpot.  They sold over 20.1 million in tickets when the normal amount sold is around 13 million.  Look for this run to have records everytime the jackpot rolls so watch out for another big jackpot in about 4 weeks.

Brad

Just6ntlc

I agree with you Bradly_60 on this one. I hope it keeps rolling into new records.

Chewie

The Saturday, March 04, 2006 Powerball drawing has taken place, and the results are 13-22-27-52-55, and the Powerball is 26. 

Precisely the numbers I would not have chosen.  Read somewhere that "13" was a bad lottery number.  21 and 22 are my favorite extra ball numbers also; not 26.  Saved a couple of bucks, and a few gallons of gas!  It will now go into the "kitty" for EuroMillions.  London would be nice this time of the year.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

I guess the fact is that this is a record....Mega Millions has never been this high after one roll.  The sales for this past drawing were exceptional for the minimum $12,000,000 jackpot.  They sold over 20.1 million in tickets when the normal amount sold is around 13 million.  Look for this run to have records everytime the jackpot rolls so watch out for another big jackpot in about 4 weeks.

Brad

Since the first rollover never doubles the jackpot, they clearly never sell enough tickets on the first draw to pay for the minimum prize.  If typical sales for the first draw are about 13 million, it's a safe bet that sales for the next draw are at least 13 million,  but they'd need to sell a total of 30 million to pay for the usual $15 million annuity. That may mean that they usually don't reach their break even point until the third draw. If they sold 20 million last time around they should have total sales of at least 40 million for the current draw, which should mean a cash prize of 12 million and an annuity of 20 million. If your numbers are accurate, even though the advertised annuity is more than usual it's probably still a bit on the conservative side.

I'm thinking that the recent big prizes have left a lot of people with lottery fever. Since the game was changed the first rollover has usually been from 12 to 15 and occasionally 16, and then a bigger jump to the low 20's or 25. I'd guess that 25 is the first threshold that brings in the people who don't play for every draw, but it will be interesting to see what the next few rollovers (assuming we see them) bring. Will it grow substantially quicker than usual, or are we just seeing a bunch of people playing at lower levels than they normally do? If that's the case then the next roll should be to the low 30's, but after another rollover or two the jumps should be comparable to what typically happens at any given level.

As for Chewie's bit about 100 million being the point at which we usually see a winner, I think I recall officials saying the average jackpot should be about 70 million when the new matrix was announced, but what would be expected for a game with odds of 176 million to 1 would be 1 winning ticket for every 176 million tickets sold. Selling 176 million tickets puts almost 53 million into the jackpot prize pool, which means an annuity of about 88 million. Since the matrix was changed there have been 8 winning tickets for 7 jackpots, and an average of 142.5 million per winning ticket. That works out to one winning ticket for each 285 million sold. It was a very good year for the people who shared four unusually big jackpots, and the one person who got the expected jackpot of $88 million.

Chewie

I was close and used no math.  I based my comment on when the media promotions kick in.  When the media gets on the band wagon, sales jump.  People listen to the media! At least the poor people do!

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

If any game were close to a record it would be Euromillions. Only 8 more rolls and it will take 2nd place on the biggest jackpot list. Megamillions has failed for years now to roll at the 300 million level and only broke the 300 million level once. Considering the 100 million more combinations than Euromillions it should be at the #1 spot by now.

CASH Only

If any game were close to a record it would be Euromillions. Only 8 more rolls and it will take 2nd place on the biggest jackpot list. Megamillions has failed for years now to roll at the 300 million level and only broke the 300 million level once. Considering the 100 million more combinations than Euromillions it should be at the #1 spot by now.

Euro Millions costs 2 euros (more than $2) per ticket.

Chewie

If any game were close to a record it would be Euromillions. Only 8 more rolls and it will take 2nd place on the biggest jackpot list. Megamillions has failed for years now to roll at the 300 million level and only broke the 300 million level once. Considering the 100 million more combinations than Euromillions it should be at the #1 spot by now.

Euro Millions costs 2 euros (more than $2) per ticket.

If its too steep, go with annuity scratch-offs.  Then you'll receive annual payments to supplement your gambling.

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

I can just see CashOnly buying annuity scratch and Lucky for Life tickets right now.

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