By Todd Northrop
Lottery players across the United States will be lining up at lottery retailers for their chance to win Friday's massive $291 million Mega Millions jackpot, after nobody won Tuesday's $257 million grand prize.
The cash value stands at a staggering $157.2 million.
With the new Friday jackpot, both the annuity jackpot and lump-sum cash value enter into the top 25 United States lottery jackpots. (See full list below.)
Friday's Mega Millions jackpot is the accumulation of 18 consecutive drawings without a top prize winner. The current jackpot run-up started on October 4 as a $12 million grand prize.
Players should note that jackpot amounts are conservative estimates provided by the lotteries, and are often somewhat higher by the time the drawing occurs.
In the latest Mega Millions drawing that took place this past Tuesday night, there was no jackpot winner, but 1 lucky player from Missouri matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize.
The Missouri winner did not purchase their ticket with the Megaplier option for an extra $1 per play. If they had, their prize would have been increased to $3 million, because the Megaplier number drawn was 3.
The Megaplier option is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered with the Megaplier is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.
A total of 73 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $5,000 prize. Of those tickets, 17 were sold in California, where the prize awarded this drawing is $2,566.
The Mega Millions winning numbers for Tuesday, December 3, 2013, were 7, 12, 41, 44, and 59, with Mega Ball number 3. The Megaplier number was 3.
Following the Tuesday drawing, the Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate was raised $34 million from its previous amount of $257 million. The cash value was raised by $18 million, from its previous amount of $139.2 million.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 43 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $1 each.
A 44th Mega Millions state may be added in early 2014, as the state of Wyoming has approved a new state lottery with the intention of joining multi-state lottery games. (See Wyoming officially becomes 44th state with a lottery, Lottery Post, Mar. 14, 2013.)
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
Friday's Mega Millions jackpot currently stands as the 24th-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States. That position may rise before the drawing Friday night, as lotteries are typically conservative in their initial estimates, and brisk sales may push the jackpot estimate higher by draw time.
- Mega Millions: $656 million, Mar. 30, 2012 - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Powerball: $590.5 million, May 18, 2013 - Florida
- Powerball: $587.5 million, Nov. 28, 2012 - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $448.4 million, Aug. 7, 2013 - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $399.4 million, Sep. 18, 2013 - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $390 million, Mar. 6, 2007 - Georgia, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $380 million, Jan. 4, 2011 - Idaho, Washington
- Powerball: $365 million, Feb. 18, 2006 - Nebraska
- The Big Game: $363 million, May 9, 2000 - Illinois, Michigan
- Powerball: $340 million, Oct. 19, 2005 - Oregon
- Powerball: $338.3 million, Mar. 23, 2013 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $337 million, Aug. 15, 2012 - Michigan
- Powerball: $336.4 million, Feb. 11, 2012 - Rhode Island
- Mega Millions: $336 million, Aug. 28, 2009 - California, New York
- The Big Game: $331 million, Apr. 16, 2002 - Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $330 million, Aug. 31, 2007 - Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia
- Mega Millions: $319 million, Mar. 25, 2011 - New York
- Mega Millions: $315 million, Nov. 15, 2005 - California
- Powerball: $314.9 million, Dec. 26, 2002 - West Virgina
- Powerball: $314.3 million, Aug. 25, 2007 - Indiana
- Powerball: $295.7 million, Jul. 29, 1998 - Indiana
- Powerball: $295 million, Aug. 25, 2001 - Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $294 million, Jul. 2, 2004 - Massachusetts
- Mega Millions: $291 million, Dec. 6, 2013 - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $276.3 million, Mar. 15, 2008 - West Virgina
For those keeping score, the number of jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Mega Millions: 9
- Powerball: 14
- The Big Game: 2
The Big Game is the original name of Mega Millions, from the game's first drawing on Sep. 6, 1996 through May 14, 2002. The name was changed to Mega Millions starting with the May 17, 2002 drawing.
Top 25 cash value jackpots
Since many lottery winners collect their winnings in cash, the lump-sum payout is an important measure of what a winning ticket could be worth.
Looking at the cash value, the upcoming Mega Millions jackpot ranks as the 24th-largest cash value in U.S. history.
- Mega Millions: $471 million cash, Mar. 30, 2012 ($656 million annuity) - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Powerball: $384.7 million cash, Nov. 28, 2012 ($587.5 million annuity) - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $370.9 million cash, May 18, 2013 ($590.5 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $258.2 million cash, Aug. 7, 2013 ($448.4 million annuity) - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Mega Millions: $240 million cash, Jan. 4, 2011 ($380 million annuity) - Idaho, Washington
- Mega Millions: $233.1 million cash, Mar. 6, 2007 ($390 million annuity) - Georgia, New Jersey
- Powerball: $224.7 million cash, Aug. 15, 2012 ($337 million annuity) - Michigan
- Powerball: $223.3 million cash, Sep. 18, 2013 ($399.4 million annuity) - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $214 million cash, Aug. 28, 2009 ($336 million annuity) - California, New York
- Powerball: $211 million cash, Mar. 23, 2013 ($338.3 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Powerball: $210 million cash, Feb. 11, 2012 ($336.4 million annuity) - Rhode Island
- Mega Millions: $202.9 million cash, Mar. 25, 2011 ($319 million annuity) - New York
- Mega Millions: $194.4. million cash, Aug. 31, 2007 ($330 million annuity) - Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia
- Mega Millions: $185 million cash, Nov. 15, 2005 ($315 million annuity) - California
- The Big Game: $180 million cash, May 9, 2000 ($363 million annuity) - Illinois, Michigan
- Powerball: $177.3 million cash, Feb. 18, 2006 ($365 million annuity) - Nebraska
- Mega Millions: $168 million cash, July 2, 2004 ($294 million annuity) - Massachusetts
- Mega Millions: $167.7 million cash, Feb. 22, 2008 ($275 million annuity) - Georgia
- Powerball: $166 million cash, Aug. 25, 2001 ($295 million annuity) - Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $165.2 million cash, May 4, 2010 ($266 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $164.4 million cash, won Oct. 19, 2005 ($340 million annuity) - Oregon
- Mega Millions: $164 million cash, Feb. 28, 2006 ($270 million annuity) - Ohio
- Powerball: $161.5 million cash, July 29, 1998 ($295.7 million annuity) - Indiana
- Mega Millions: $157.2 million cash, Dec. 6, 2013 ($291 million annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Mega Millions: $156.1 million cash, Sept. 16, 2005 ($258 million annuity) - New Jersey
((($291 MILLION))) here we go, Indiana is slacking
I think this one will be number one, Good luck everybody.
This jackpot is not growing fast enough. Only a $34M bump for crying out loud.
if it will help the pot grow i will buy 4 tickets today the best i can do before this ice storm hits
I'm on it!
Trying to get the jackpot for Texas! Woot! Gonna roll my $3 win from last night. 
but its getting interesting
Yeah, it takes more to get people excited nowadays, with jackpot fatigue setting in.
But looks like it may have finally turned the corner, with higher than expected sales, headed into higher growth phase. People may get their Christmas wish: a billion dollar JP by 12/24 draw! (if it makes it that far)
We are past the distractions of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it's clear sailing from here on out. Onward and upward!
Yo Trax, I don't think you're sufficiently motivated. $157.2 Million is not enough to get you in the game? Your goal must be to purchase the Empire State Building or something.
And,
Here,
We,
GO!
A party in Pennsylvania! I will purchase the best Iced Tea available if I win!
I had all the six winning numbers on three different tickets!
Sigh..
Haven't seen any big wisconsin wins. Wonder when that will happen?
I see that David Lee Edwards JP is listed @ #22 and @ #19 on the CV list
The winners he split w/are from Delaware, Minnesota and New Hampshire and we never heard how these peeps made out.
Oh and Delaware is anonymous.
This JP should move up this list quickly !
Lets Keep This One Going. Very Nice Christmas or New Years Girft Awaits the Lucky One/Ones. 1 BILLION PLUS maybe????
I think the media only Highlights the Ones that dont fare that well. Who Knows. Hopefully whoever they are, their winnings have been able to be a blessing to themselves and others.
I agree! I am trying to do my share!
At least Indiana is on the list.
Try and find Tennessee.
We're way overdue.
Waaaaaaaaaay.
Well Edwards did show up on a couple shows/documentaries, so that kept up to date with him after he got some stardom
True. Maybe there's some correlation between those that seek and bask in the limelight and their ultimate fate?
I see that West Virginia is on the annuity list @ #19 that must be Jack Whittaker, that doesn't show on the CV list,
I guess it did'nt make the top 25.
Also I see Jersey on the list 2 times in 2007, if I remember right these 2 wins were in cape may county (next south to me)
and have not anything bad about those winners.
"I see that West Virginia is on the annuity list @ #19 that must be Jack Whittaker, that doesn't show on the CV list, I guess it did'nt make the top 25."
Jack Whittaker's cash value prize was $170,505,876 so it should be ranked #17 on the CV list.
Someone (of course I see myself being the blessed winer!!!!!) or someones, will have an awesome Christmas and new year. I think MM has a few more rolls in it. It will crack the top 10 in jackpots and cash values.
WHO CARES???
A billion dollars for a Christmas jackpot would be really cool! That's my Christmas wish. I want to be the sole winner of the billion dollars Mega Millions jackpot. C'mon Santa. I've been good this year! I'm ready for early retirement!
Those people who lost their jackpots and ended up broke had some serious character flaws. Some of which may or may not include greedy family members and/or friends, a lack of education, a lack of sound legal and financial advice, a tendency toward showing off and bragging, a proclivity towards strippers, drugs, alcohol, expensive cars, shopping, etc., and the inability to say "NO!"
True. But lets not knock 'em too much. We all have our shortcomings....some just happen to be worse and more visible than others.
They only sold about $38 million worth of tickets, and it looks like they dumped nearly all of the sales into the jackpot to try to get people playing.
Where did you get that figure? It says $49 million in sales
Well, three quikpicks each with megaplier will have to do it for me.
Actually I hadn't seen any figures on sales, but just did a basic odds of winning a prize times the amount of winners. I used the Mega ball winners for $1 sales + the $2 sales Mega ball winners which was:
2,252,869 + 196,145 = 2,449,014 x 1/15 odds of getting Mega ball. This equals: 36,735,210. I just rounded up a couple of million. However, if you mulitply by their listed overall odds of winning anything....1/21, you would get 51,429,294. Based on sales and odds getting 5-0 though, there should have been 2 winners instead of one. I found the $49 million figure you gave.
Is there a Flying Lady in my future?
291M would be a lot more exciting if the CV is where it was before they decided to screw the game up.
That's not going to happen with only six rolls left.
If it bleeds it leads. When's the last time your evening news started out with a story that said "Family Of Four Makes It Home Safely After Thanksgiving Dinner At Grandma's House"?
Interesting. The odds for the top prizes are steep enough that if the number of winners is even slightly off from what probability suggests, that using those numbers for a simple calculation of how many tickets were sold can be wildly inaccurate. I'm surprised that the number of 0+1 winners results in such alarge error. For some reason, 3 must have been an unpopular choice this time around.
The article failed to mention that this jackpot is number 1 on a different list. That's the list of most rollovers before reaching $290 million.
Your numbers are off because you're cross multiplying different prize categories.
Also, when you say "$2 sales Mega" do you mean Megaplier? Because the 2,252,869 0+1 winners already includes the Megaplier side-bet winners. The 196,145 number is how many of the 2,252,869 were Megaplier, not in addition to.
But anyway, you can't multiply the 1/15 odds with the 0+1 winners, you would have to use the corresponding odds for that prize 1/21.(actually 21.39 to be precise) That gives you 2,252,869 * 21.39 = $48,188,868.
In order to use the 1/15 odds of just Mega ball, you'd need to add up all the "+1" winners, which is 3,255,602 * 15 = $48,834,030.
But best number would be to use the total winners times overall 1/14.71 odds, which is 3,321,600 * 14.71 = $48,860,736.
Of course, it's better just to get the actual Sales figure, which was $49,042,172. But as you see, multiplying correctly gets you pretty close for a "pseudo-sales" number, closer than $37M or $51M anyway.
Actually, it's not normally this close. The pseudo-sales number varies wildly a few percent above or below the actual sales figures, depending on how the draw lined up with player picks. So it's not really a good estimate of sales, using one line or one draw.
But interestingly, what the difference can indicate over the long term, is duplicates/overlap of combinations played, the actual coverage of combinations versus the statistical ideal.(due to self picks, birthday numbers, etc) The new MM is currently tracking around 3% difference.
I actually thik its HIGHLY possible DC81. Remember, once it get to 400mil which it will within the next couple draws, the madness ensues. Days of 100mil plus jumps are assured. In addition with the media hype and holidays upon us, if no one wins the next 2/3 draws, i really dont see how it doesnt make it to 800mil/1bil. And if by Chrismas there's no winner. Then 1.3 billion or so is almost guaranteed for early Jan. Remember that when it climed to 656 mil over a year ago, it got there with over 250 mil plus jump in ONE day!!!
I couldn't help not to burst out laughing when I saw a headline story on Philly.com
"Mega Million jackpot 2nd biggest in 2 years thanks to lousier odds'.
The sub headline of the story validates MM strategy is working.
"Recent changes seem to be helping the lottery game compete with powerball".
Usually it's MM which is the after thought, now it's PB. I think at the end of the day, players really don't care about the crazier odds then before with MM, al lthey care about is that big posted annunity value(which nobody ever takes) and that the cost of play is still just a buck.
nailed it"... that's what the matrix change was all about.
Fewer and single big jackpot winners", more lower tier prize winners!
With that dollar you're renting your dreams of "what if"........that ticket represents
a hope and prayer, that your long shot comes in.
I don't like the new matrix either.......but I love the idea of "what if"
so I'll be renting my dream until the drawing come Friday.
"Good luck to all"
I don't know DC, I'm pretty excited with the cash value of this jackpot.
I can see it all now.....
Pricey but affordable at only $2.675M.
Won't happen.
Don't get me wrong I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at winning the JP or even one 100th of its size but it still bugs me how much they've neutered the cash value with the changes they've made. Of course I'd completely forget about that if I won.
It's really the annuity that they've messed with, and the cash option is actually slightly improved.
The annuity for new MM has been pumped up relative to the cash value, by going to 30 graduated payments instead of 26 fixed payments. This difference between the cash value and the annuity value is called the "annuity factor." And due to the new annuity structure, it is higher now than it was before. Currently about 1.85 for the new MM versus about 1.45 previously with the old MM.(dependent on market conditions)
The cash value is the real jackpot and is a fixed percentage of revenue collected. With the old MM, the JP was based on 31.8% of accumulated sales. The new MM is slightly higher at 32.58% of revenue.(of course, that also means the 2nd-9th prizes are slightly reduced in total payout by about 0.8%)
The annuity value comes from multiplying the cash value by the annuity factor, except in the early stages of the game,(the first couple draws) where the jackpot is underfunded by sales. In those cases, the cash value is based on the promised annuity value. The jackpot should be fully funded on the 3rd draw for new MM.(was 1st or 2nd draw for old MM) At that point, the annuity value increases more than the minimum $5M increases. So after this big JP is won, it will reset and we should see: $15M, $20M, and then >$25 annuity after that, with corresponding cash value to annuity value ratios.
Good luck everyone. I'm in it to win it.
I do believe that the jackpot just took at jump to $297 million. Cash Value is now at $158 million!
6 million jump in the annuity with only an 800 thousand jump in the cash value? The after-tax value for the cash jackpot falls to 32.1% from 32.7% of the advertised annuity prize.
This is because the annuity factor increased (1.85 to 1.869), which decreases the cash value required to fund the annuity jackpot. Prior cash support was only $155.6 million, not the $157.2 million advertised, which is why the cash value increase seems very small.
The bump to $297 million is just a parlor trick, enabled by a change in the interest rate that would be paid on the annuity if a winner actually opted for the annuity. If the interest rates hadn't chnaged they wouldn't have announced such a small change until offering the final tally at drawing time. The change in interest rates just gave them an excuse to inflate the fake jackpot a bit more.