Interest peaking in Friday's mega-draw
By Todd Northrop
What started yesterday as a $237 million jackpot estimate has become a $242 million estimate a day later.
Lottery officials have raised the official annuity jackpot estimate for tomorrow night's Mega Millions drawing to $242 million.
The cash option likewise has been raised another $3.2 million to a whopping $154 million.
Lottery players interested in learning how taxes will affect the annuity and cash payouts can visit USA Mega's Jackpot Analysis page.
When an official jackpot estimate is raised prior to the drawing, it is a sure sign of astronomical sales. The interest in the Mega Millions drawing Friday is being sparked by a combination of the New Year's Eve drawing date, plus the fact that a jackpot this large hasn't been seen since May.
If nobody hits the jackpot Friday, the new Mega Millions jackpot will surely be the largest since August 28, 2009, when two winning tickets from California and New York took down a $336 million mega-jackpot.
The cash value of that drawing was $210 million.
The Mega Millions drawing will be held Friday at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. The winning numbers will be published right after the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com).
i will be clicking my red shoes together and dreaming of Kansas......theres no place like home!!!!!!!!!!
i have my ticket ready to claim my jackpot prize monday morning anonymously of course
DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!
I found the lottery analysis from USA Mega very helpful. It looks like New Jersey takes a hefty tax out of your winnings. I was also surprised that California has no state tax on lottery winnings. Perhaps another reason why California is always in a financial crisis. Go figure.
Very funny post KSplayer. What about theWiced Witch of the West (aka Joan Ginther) she may come along and take your winnings.
PS. I have no ill will against 4 time lottery winner Joan. I'm just trying to be funny.
Alright !
I can get a $100 Million EFT from the PA Lottery early next year !
One Ticket - One Winner !
I'm dreaming of a Green New Years !
I hope not i might just have to drop a house on her luisM
same here no ill will just being funny
I think it's great that you get to claim anonymously in Kansas. Here in Florida no way. There was a lottery winner who was murdered over his winnings. I say change the law so you remain anonymous for safety
No state tax on winnings in Washington either, a different story if I cross the bridge into Oregon. I'll buy three tickets for tomorrow's drawing. I wouldn't care if I had to split the money with ten people. Some money is better than no money and lord knows I need it.
I agree if and you have kids it is even more important you never know what kind of crazy people are out there and what they will do for money
Also another bad thing about Florida is that Blind Trusts are not allowed. You can claim with a trust but the trustee's name is published. same deal with LLC's ;-(
When I went to play my midday numbers the store was already lined up with meag-millions players.
My husband got 5 easy picks, I'll pick my own.
Letit grow, letit grow, letit grow!
With the amount of interest being shown for Friday's MM drawing, LP could set new record Friday night for the number of people on line.
I was having a feeling it would be raised again. I've seen so many people buying them compared to almost none, I've even seen a few people in the 20-30 age range getting some.
Looks like I gotta get out and pick up a few more before tomorrow night.
I had a dream I played those numbers 02, 17, 20, 48, 51 and megaball 13...Anyone who want can try their luck using those numbers. I don't want to win by myself. Good luck to all
In another thread, someone said Richard Lustig who has won 7 Florida lottery jackpots suggested playing 7,20,32,45,46 with megaball 28 on yesterday's Morning Show.
I am so tempted to run out and buy some mroe tickets.
One of my favorite lottery stories is that of Chris Shaw who was down to his last $28.00 in his bank account and won $258,500,000.00 with a $5.00 Quick Pick ticket at the very same store whee he worked.
I remember finding this a while back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvnJ9Tiztcc
1QP TICKET
it only takes ONE...
You'll feel bad if nobody wins and then realize you could have lost less with fewer tickets and had some extra money for the next drawing.
Then again, you will feel bad too if one person wins and you think Dang! I could have bought more tickets and if I had, I may have won too!
[I know, this could go on forever :) ]
GREAT story TTech! Thank you for sharing that!
I wonder who was filming it? It must have been a friend; I thought he told his girlfriend that he would be on tv and at first was thinking a tv station camera was following him. But if that were the case, the girl putting the letters on the sign would have probably known.
Then again, seems like the lady would have thought something was odd about him being filmed anyway.
But it was great seeing this. I would like to see a follow up. Maybe he will show up on 'Lottery changed my life'
This will be a nice jackpot for someone to start off the New Year! Large enough to do what you please and fufill some dreams/fantasies...."Small" enough to get claimed anonymously...... Good Luck to Everyone! And HAPPY NEW YEARS! If I win expect to hear nothing....I might post to LP from an Exotic Local poolside from a tropical isle!! LOL
It was a great video. Timing was everything. The guy filming has several Missouri Lottery related videos uploaded. I think he was there interviewing the clerks when the winner walked up. Nothing like being in the right place at the right time.
Got my tickets, 8 for my luck number.
No problem.
The YouTube channel for the uploader say's it's "Missouri Lottery on YouTube" so it seems to be someone with the lottery there. The other guy there is an official with the lottery I believe. I like how you get to see the reactions from other people and the winner when learning he won, progressing from confusion to excitement and shock.
He went on the CBS Early Show after that but since then haven't heard anything from him. He talked about getting someone to help with financials so hopefully he did that and is doing fine with the winnings.
There will be at least a million other players thinking that regardless of tonight's drawing results.
Makes you wonder how many ways it would be split if that's what hits.
I have the winning ticket worth $242,000,000 in my wallet! Yes!
That video is awesome!
You know, you can post a You Tube video right in your post by clicking the "Insert Video" button on the toolbar (looks like a little green film strip on the button). You paste the You Tube link (URL) into the File/URL space, and click OK - that's all! It looks like a yellow square in your post, but when you post the message you get this:
I bought 2 $10 QP tickets. Is that a lot to spend or what?
Only if it was more than you could afford to lose. I'm sure there were some who spent a lot more.
Shows what Richard Lustig knows about winning Florida lotteries doesn't apply to multi-states lotteries.
nobody won, nice. i got 100 tickets this time, never spent that much for one drawing i just wanted to see what the results woudl be. the result was i won 2 dollars.
When I was browsing YouTube the other day for lottery videos I saw one where a guy runs a very large lottery pool and for the December 26th drawing last year they spent $842. The guy who did win that jackpot only spent $6 (or $3 if you don't count the purchase of the 3 additional tickets). Just goes to show it really is luck and not how much you throw into the game.
Though having said that I too threw in a good amount for this drawing (and the past one). I haven't been doing PB drawings for a while though so it's not really eating into the lottery budget.
Thanks for that reminder, I usually do that on other sites but was tired and didn't think to look to see if this site had that.
He is no expert. He has never won Florida Lotto (odds 1:23 million). What he has won is a couple of Fantasy 5 (odds 1:377 thousand) and a split Mega Money Jackpots (1:3 million) and a couple of smaller scratch off ticket prizes. All he is doing is using his "celebrity" to get people to buy his book so he can buy more tickets.
A true expert would have at least won Florida Lotto at least a couple of times.