$290 MILLION: Mega Millions lottery rocket-ride

Jan 1, 2011, 12:54 am (69 comments)

Mega Millions

Biggest jackpot in 16 months

By Todd Northrop

The Mega Millions rocket ride continues after Friday night's New Year's Eve mega-draw did not produce a jackpot winner. 

The new jackpot for the Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011 Mega Millions drawing is a staggering $290 million, with a faint-inducing lump-sum cash value of $182.6 million.

The mammoth grand prize is the result of 15 draws without a winner.  The run-up started as a $12 million prize on Nov. 12, 2010.

The winning numbers for Friday, Dec. 31, 2010 were 10, 12, 13, 35, and 56, with a Mega Ball number of 9.   The Megaplier number was 4.

Even though nobody won the jackpot Friday, 21 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 3 from Arizona, 2 from California, 2 from Georgia, 2 from Illinois, 1 from Maryland, 2 from New Jersey, 5 from New York, 1 from Ohio, 1 from Oklahoma, 1 from Texas, and 1 from Virginia.

The two California winners will each be awarded prizes of $579,888, because California awards all prizes in a pari-mutuel formula, which calculates the prize amount based on the number of tickets sold and the number of winners in each prize category.  Because only two tickets won second prize despite the large sales volume, the payout is larger then normal for the lucky winners.

The winning numbers for Tuesday's Mega Millions lottery drawing will be published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) right after the drawing takes place at 11:00 PM Eastern Time.

USA Mega is one of the few lottery Web sites with a robust technology backbone that keeps it running strong, even when massive player traffic melts down other state lottery Web sites.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Genome

Maybe it can go past 390 million in 2007. Id like for that to happen If I dont win it. Last time MA won was in 2004. I think were do again. I'll do my part by putting in $20.

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

Genome, it can go past it in Cash value if it rolls 1 time,

current record is $233,000,000 cash on  mar 6th , 2007

they are no doubt playing it safe, and will update the jackpot amount before draw again

, to maybe 200m plus cash by time of draw,  these kinds of sales, they Can't take a spot on guest to at lest 1 day of sales pass, to get a better idea


at 182.6M cash, ITS BIGGER THEN ANY POWERBALL jackpot!

powerball biggest cash jackpot to date was 177m cash, 

 

if it somehow avoids the best efforts by players 1 more time,

i have to break open my piggy bank and spend

, right now am trying to cap it at 20 bucks for this draw,  normaly i only spend 1 to 5 bucks thro lol

so what you guys normaly spend, LOL

dr65's avatardr65

I hope it goes out next draw. Some people become ticket fiends when a jackpot is as big as this one...I'm sure some have been enticed for weeks

to dream too much, then spend too much. I'll take a shot at it too - for $10. Good luck to anyone that plays.

keepitreal

I hope one day we see a member here hit jackpot in Mega Millions or Powerball.

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

sense i go by cash value records, here is what i found looking back

 

top mega millions jackpots in cash

#1 going down list

Annuity   Cash

Mega Millions Jackpot for Mar. 6, 2007   

$390,000,000


$233,000,000

Mega Millions Jackpot for Aug. 28, 2009   

     $336,000,000

                         

$210,000,000

Mega Millions Jackpot for Aug. 31, 2007

$330,000,000


       $194,000,000

Mega Millions Jackpot for Nov. 15, 2005   

$315,000,000

                 

$185,000,000

Mega Millions Jackpot for Tue, Jan 4, 2011   

$290,000,000

                 

$183,000,000

Thats right, as of right now, its the 5th largest mm jackpot,  soon to be #4 no doubt, maybe even #3 by draw time, depends on how much it gets upped

however their is a error in my math, i think their was a larger jackpot mm back in early 2000? but i dont have the data that far back lol

ether way its top 5/6th atm

 

ah edited update, found it,
$363.0 million
May 9, 2000
2
The Big Game

however my data does not have the freaking cash value of it, however on a google search, i think it was around 180m cash going by news reports of 2 diff winners shares

so i indeed call the current jackpot the 5th largest cash jackpot in usa,  by draw time it be in top 4, so woot woot

barbos's avatarbarbos

Letit grow, letit grow, letit grow! Hyper

I wanna see it half a billion. Happy New Year everyone, good luck!

ttech10's avatarttech10

they are no doubt playing it safe, and will update the jackpot amount before draw again


I completely agree. Don't expect it to be at $300 million but it wouldn't surprise me if it did or got close, ticket sales are sure to push it up some more. Glad it rolled since the winning numbers were not nice on the numbers I had printed out. I wasn't even close.
.
I'm going to think good thoughts for this next drawing. I wasn't feeling good about this one and did bad, compared to one drawing about two weeks ago where I was almost certain I'd get at least 5/5 and actually got pretty close (2 numbers were 1-3 digits off).
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Happy New Years everyone and good luck this next draw.
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Oh, and on Google News if you search for "Mega Millions" and look at articles within the past hour this article is the 2nd one to show up... at least at the time of writing this.
Stack47

I was hoping it would won on Friday because now I'll to get tickets in the next drawing and my New Years Resolution is to not buy any more quick piggies.

butterflykt's avatarbutterflykt

Quote: Originally posted by keepitreal on Jan 1, 2011

I hope one day we see a member here hit jackpot in Mega Millions or Powerball.

You will.  Tuesday will be my day...positive thoughtsEmbarassed

Super-man's avatarSuper-man

Wowoweewah... See Ya! I only got the last 2 numbers (1 white ball + Megaball for a $3 win), which wasn't bad considering I got back the $3 quick picks I bought! Big Smile

Now I'm gonna use my "winnings" to buy another for this Tuesday's draw! Wink

 

GOOD LUCK TO US ALL!!! BRING IT ON $300+ MILLION!!! (which I believe would be reached by then!) Banana Patriot Guitar Hyper

Grovel's avatarGrovel

I'm calling it now. They are going to bump it to 300 million before tuesday.

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by Grovel on Jan 1, 2011

I'm calling it now. They are going to bump it to 300 million before tuesday.

I Agree! ...Congrats to all the 5-0 winners last night.Cheers

dopey7719's avatardopey7719

To put my mind at ease, tell me I'm not the biggest spender here considering I put $15.00 down for this.  10 are numbers I chose and 5 were quick picks.  I didn't come close....just 2 numbers on one line. 

Please, please, please tell me someone here spent more than me!!!!  Make me not feel so bad!!!

myturn08

Quote: Originally posted by dopey7719 on Jan 1, 2011

To put my mind at ease, tell me I'm not the biggest spender here considering I put $15.00 down for this.  10 are numbers I chose and 5 were quick picks.  I didn't come close....just 2 numbers on one line. 

Please, please, please tell me someone here spent more than me!!!!  Make me not feel so bad!!!

dont feel bad, i spoke to the clerk i visit all the time and he said he had a crazy day, people buying $100, $60, $40, $40, $20, worth of tickets

CarHauler

I have absolutely no idea why I haven't won the jackpot yet. After all, I did spend $33 last year on Powerball, Mega Millions and Win For Life, altogether. I probably spent 5 to 10 times as much an Cash 3 and Fantasy 5 mainly due to their superior odds. I realize that while winning either of those will not necessarily change my lifestyle forever, and that I would still most likely need to work. Maybe I will be a sucker like thousands of others and buy 20 tickets or so. I spend the most on instant games, but I am starting to develop renewed interest in online games.

Does anyone know of any reliable and trustworthy pools in the Marietta, GA area? Or the north metro Atlanta area for that matter? I am the only one who plays in my family that I know of (my father in law suggested he might like to participate, and when I asked how much he wanted to spend, he said $1. I laughed at that one). Is there anything about pools here on LP? This site has so much wonderful information that I have not made my way around it completely.

I am thinking that if I could find a group of say 10-12 folks willing to spend $25 or so each, then we would have much better odds. In such a situation, we could purchase a full wheel of 252 tickets with a 5/5 guarantee on 10 numbers. On the other hand we could get an abbreviated wheel with say 273 tickets with a 4/5 guarantee and 16 numbers. How about 271 tickets with a 3/5 guarantee and 30 numbers. Finally, we could say 204 random tickets, or special numbers, or whatever. If we did all of those, we would have $1,000 worth of tickets, so if you were to spend $25 each, you would need 40 people. Or with 40 people, you could wheel 45 numbers on 1007 tickets, but it too would only have a 3/5 guarantee.

You may or may not win, but I bet you would at least have enough lower tier winners to make some money, even if not a top prize. Assuming that there were 40 players, and if there were 2 winners of 4 balls with a megaplier of 5x, everyone would make their money back, plus however many 3 ball winners there were. Let's say that 40 people had to share the jackpot, and decided to go with the annuity (which I think is much smarter, but the group would have to vote), then each player would win 7.5 Million. After 31% combined state and federal tax is withheld, that would leave each player  just a little over $5,175,000 each.

Sure that is not as sweet as the $290,000,000 which would be about 200,000,000 after taxes, but you would increase your odds by 40 times, which would of course mean that you only got 1/40 of the prize, but I like the better odds. After taxes, each player would recieve about $200,000 a year for the next 26 years. Just about anyone should be able to live quite comfortably on that income, and set aside a percentage of that for retirement. I might keep working for a while, and I would probably spend most of my first years payment on a new or nearly new truck.

I am torn between wheeling hot and cold numbers, randomly mixing hot and cold numbers, picking my own random numbers (which is a terrible idea), using random.org lotto RNG, some other online RNG such as might be on LP, or a lottery terminals quick pick. I have no idea if the lottery terminal at each store can be fine tuned or not by the owner, but it seems like I heard that somewhere. It makes sense from the store owners perspective to have as many winners as possible. This generates a retailer bonus, and probably adds to their sales by showing off the winners.

The lottery itself would probably prefer the fewest winners possible, for a number of reasons. One is because the longer a game goes without a jackpot winner, the more excitement builds. This in turn causes more people to buy who might not otherwise, and it may convince a lot of players to purchase more tickets than normal. Also with fewer winners, there is less administration, investigations and oversight. There is less likelihood of litigation. Also, on games that are not pari-mutuel, such as Cash 3, the lottery has a vested interest in having the fewest possible winners.

dopey7719's avatardopey7719

Quote: Originally posted by myturn08 on Jan 1, 2011

dont feel bad, i spoke to the clerk i visit all the time and he said he had a crazy day, people buying $100, $60, $40, $40, $20, worth of tickets

Thanks myturn08, I feel a bit better.  Still sucks that I didn't even win 2bucks back but at almost 300M,  I can't help but play again!!!!

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

I spent 40 and got 40 back.  I won't play without the megaplier.

PrisonerSix

Quote: Originally posted by barbos on Jan 1, 2011

Letit grow, letit grow, letit grow! Hyper

I wanna see it half a billion. Happy New Year everyone, good luck!

If it gets that high, I might have to make a 2-3 hour drive to the Texas border to play, and I doubt I'd be the only one.

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

............ and now ............. I gotta figure out how to spend $118,000,000 after Federal Taxes !

I almost had it last nite ........... $2 payout on my last quickpick !

Happy New Year to all .................

........... and a Happy Tuesday Nite to Me ! Big Grin

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

CarHauler

"I have absolutely no idea why I haven't won the jackpot yet...."

Here's an idea, read the odds on the back of the playslip.

ellardfam

Wow! I love lotteries that get this large...sure makes for wonderful dreams! This would be an awesome way to start the new year.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by dopey7719 on Jan 1, 2011

To put my mind at ease, tell me I'm not the biggest spender here considering I put $15.00 down for this.  10 are numbers I chose and 5 were quick picks.  I didn't come close....just 2 numbers on one line. 

Please, please, please tell me someone here spent more than me!!!!  Make me not feel so bad!!!

At least for a short while, you will be even for the year(2011)-spent nothing/won nothing/lost nothing.

mbycroft

Quote: Originally posted by dopey7719 on Jan 1, 2011

To put my mind at ease, tell me I'm not the biggest spender here considering I put $15.00 down for this.  10 are numbers I chose and 5 were quick picks.  I didn't come close....just 2 numbers on one line. 

Please, please, please tell me someone here spent more than me!!!!  Make me not feel so bad!!!

I chose 30 sets of numbers and with multiplier for a $60 dollar total.  Had 18 sets with winners.   14 with one number and 4 with two numbers One (with mega ball).  for $148 won on $60 bet.

I quit using the quick pic's since i would never win. Many, many a time buy 20 and win  none.  will see if the this was a one time lucky thing or will be a trend!

BazookaJoe

If i win it, im gunna get the transmission fixed in my 87 Chevy S-10. Its just sitting beside my shop and the neighbors are complaining. I might even get some new neighbors also. I might splurge and get new tires too.

Guru101's avatarGuru101

Wow. There was 1 ticket in Indiana that won. Nice win.

freeobama's avatarfreeobama

dopey7719 i spent $100 on the drawing and i did not even get the mega ball!Bang Head

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by freeobama on Jan 1, 2011

dopey7719 i spent $100 on the drawing and i did not even get the mega ball!Bang Head

What system did you use to do 2½ times worse than the overall odds of winning any prize? 

Was it the same one that you claimed to have spent $100 every drawing for the past 5 years and hadn't won a dime?
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/225278

freeobama's avatarfreeobama

RJOh i spent $11 on my own numbers and $89 on quick picks this last drawing. Normally  i spend $1 on my own set of numbers and $99 on QP. I am going to trim it down to $30 a drawing!!Puke

petergrfn

WOW!  The jackpot is soaring....I think I will eat an extra helping of Greens today for Good luck with money in the New Year!!   C'mon $290 Million...........  Oh the things I will do in 2011 with that kind of money.....   I bought $5 worth today...and may play another $5 of QP's before the drawing......  Boy I would have a great time going to work on WED. and clearing out my cubicle then telling the boss I'm off PERMANANTLY for VACATION!!Sun Smiley

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