13th-largest jackpot in US lottery history
By Todd Northrop
After 21 drawings without a jackpot winner, the multi-state Mega Millions lottery game now boasts a swelling jackpot of nearly a half-billion dollars that could instantly put someone among the wealthiest people on the planet.
When nobody won Friday night's grand prize, the Mega Millions jackpot grew to an estimated $470 million — the biggest since a $543 million Mega Millions jackpot from the July 24 drawing was claimed by a group of 11 California bank workers. (See California office pool claims $543 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, Lottery Post, Aug. 3, 2018.)
The next Mega Millions drawing is on Tuesday night at 11:00 pm Eastern Time (8:00 pm Pacific).
Tuesday's $470 million Mega Millions jackpot is the 6th-largest in the game's history, and the 13th-largest United States lottery jackpot of all time (see full list below).
The lump-sum cash value of $265.3 million is the 17th-largest on the all-time US lottery jackpot cash value list.
The current jackpot run-up started on July 27 as a $40 million grand prize — it has been more than 2 months since Mega Millions has had a jackpot winner.
Lottery players wondering what all the cash will look like in their bank account after federal and state taxes are taken out can see an after-tax analysis of the current Mega Millions jackpot by visiting USA Mega's Jackpot Analysis page.
The rush of ticket sales over the next few days likely will propel the jackpot to an even higher amount before the drawing takes place Tuesday. Lottery Post and USA Mega will update the jackpot tallies displayed if such an increase occurs.
In Friday night's Mega Millions drawing, there was no jackpot winner, but 2 lucky players from California and Kentucky matched the first 5 numbers for a second-prize win. The Kentucky second-prize player will claim a $1 million prize, but the California player will claim a $638,267 prize, due to California's unique lottery law requiring pari-mutuel prizes for all games.
The Kentucky player 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 $2 million, because the Megaplier number drawn was 2.
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 lottery 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.
Also, a total of 30 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. Of those tickets, 3 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $20,000, and 6 were sold in California, where the prize awarded this drawing is $8,126.
The Mega Millions winning numbers for Friday, October 5, 2018, were 27, 28, 32, 41, and 69, with Mega Ball number 12. The Megaplier number was 2.
Following the Friday drawing, the Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate was raised $50 million from its previous amount of $420 million. The cash value was raised by $28.2 million from its previous amount of $237.1 million.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
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
Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot currently stands as the 13th-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States. That position may rise before the drawing, as lotteries are typically conservative in their initial estimates, and brisk sales may push the jackpot estimate higher by draw time.
- Powerball: $1.5864 billion, Jan. 13, 2016 - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Powerball: $758.7 million, Aug. 23, 2017 - Massachusetts
- Mega Millions: $656 million, Mar. 30, 2012 - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Mega Millions: $636 million, Dec. 17, 2013 - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $590.5 million, May 18, 2013 - Florida
- Powerball: $587.5 million, Nov. 28, 2012 - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $564.1 million, Feb. 11, 2015 - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Powerball: $559.7 million, Jan. 6, 2018 - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $543 million, Jul. 24, 2018 - California
- Mega Millions: $536 million, Jul. 8, 2016 - Indiana
- Mega Millions: $533 million, Mar. 30, 2018 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $487 million, Jul. 30, 2016 - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $470 million, Oct. 9, 2018 - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $456.7 million, Mar. 17, 2018 - Pennsylvania
- Mega Millions: $451 million, Jan. 5, 2018 - Florida
- Powerball: $448.4 million, Aug. 7, 2013 - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $447.8 million, Jun. 10, 2017 - California
- Powerball: $435.3 million, Feb. 22, 2017 - Indiana
- Powerball: $429.6 million, May 7, 2016 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $425.3 million, Feb. 19, 2014 - California
- Powerball: $420.9 million, Nov. 26, 2016 - Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $414 million, Mar. 18, 2014 - Florida, Maryland
- Powerball: $399.4 million, Sep. 18, 2013 - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $393 million, Aug. 11, 2017 - Illinois
- Mega Millions: $390 million, Mar. 6, 2007 - Georgia, New Jersey
For those keeping score, the number of jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 15
- Mega Millions: 10
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 17th-largest cash value in U.S. history.
- Powerball: $983.5 million cash, Jan. 13, 2016 ($1.5864 billion annuity) - California, Florida, Tennessee
- Powerball: $480.5 million cash, Aug. 23, 2017 ($758.7 million annuity) - Massachusetts
- 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: $381.1 million cash, Feb. 11, 2015 ($564.1 million annuity) - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Mega Millions: $378 million cash, Jul. 8, 2016 ($536 million annuity) - Indiana
- Powerball: $370.9 million cash, May 18, 2013 ($590.5 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $352 million cash, Jan. 6, 2018 ($559.7 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($636 million annuity) - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $336.8 million cash, Jul. 30, 2016 ($487 million annuity) - New Hampshire
- Mega Millions: $324 million cash, Mar. 30, 2018 ($533 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $320.5 million cash, Jul. 24, 2018 ($543 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $284 million cash, May 7, 2016 ($429.6 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $281.9 million cash, Jan. 5, 2018 ($451 million annuity) - Florida
- Powerball: $279.1 million cash, Jun. 10, 2017 ($447.8 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $273.9 million cash, Mar. 17, 2018 ($456.7 million annuity) - Pennsylvania
- Mega Millions: $265.3 million cash, Oct. 9, 2018 ($470 million annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Powerball: $263.5 million cash, Feb. 22, 2017 ($435.3 million annuity) - Indiana
- Powerball: $258.2 million cash, Aug. 7, 2013 ($448.4 million annuity) - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $254.7 million cash, Nov. 26, 2016 ($420.9 million annuity) - Tennessee
- Mega Millions: $246.5 million cash, Aug. 11, 2017 ($393 million annuity) - Illinois
- 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
- Mega Millions: $230.9 million cash, Mar. 18, 2014 ($414 million annuity) - Florida, Maryland
- Powerball: $227.8 million cash, Feb. 19, 2014 ($425.3 million annuity) - California
The number of cash value jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 14
- Mega Millions: 11
If you won, would you appear on My Lottery Dream Home on HGTV?
David Bromstad is receiving record ratings on Friday nights.
still not worth playing
If a dollar brings 5 dollars it is worth playing. What will it take for it to be worth playing for you ?
When a dollar gets close to a dollar's worth of winnings, the jackpot is so large that hundreds of millions of tickets are sold. That means that if you are the winner, you most likely will have to split it with someone else, making the payback % just as bad as it usually is.
A $2 ticket is currently worth $1.12, assuming that if you win the jackpot you don't have to split it with anyone else. In order to calculate the real value of ? less than $1.12, given the probability of having to split the prize with someone else, I would need to know how many tickets are being sold.
Even if I had to split the jackpot with another player, it would still be more millions of dollars than I now have.
$133 mil is better than $0 mil
EnReval, This is a tempting offer. If you did a professional and fun job on the show it could become a favorite.
The new shows will start being videotaped this January.
Your show would be up there with Rick & Lori Knudsen who purchased millions of dollars of property. They even bought a restaurant.
How much will you spend on a home?
.
Tucker Black, yes, but I too would figure it your way, if I was looking for a way to avoid playing.
OK? But, I know I'm going to play, because instead of trying to figure how many tickets would be sold,
I look at how much I've I've spent, to date, which, like most or everyone on this board, is nowhere near the 470 or even the 250 million prize, thereby making it well worth playing.
I hope AND know you'll play tonight's game as well as Tuesday's (mm).
Good luck to all.
Mr. Groppo
Oh no why would I want to do that. I thought lottery post was a collection of members dedicated to taking all the smart moves. Granted Ive never actually watched that show but I've seen enough shows that feature rich people and all the luxury possessions they have.
At 400 million i have to play and at 500 or more Im playing using 4-5 numbers below 30.
Agree.
Instead of over-analyzing tix sold, etc, etc, the fact remains that even if I win second prize, it means INSTANT retirement. And the second prize odds are less than half of my state's lotto game. That's worth $2.
, well said rcb
Definitely going to rise again before draw time. My guess: 550.
MM=470 M
PB=282 M
752 M Up For Grabs!
I got my $2 Ticket early like today just before 5 p.m. good luck to me.-weshar75
If there is one thing l have noticed over the years, it is this. No winner that l can remember, has said that they have wagered hundreds of dollars in order to win the jackpot. Going back to " hot sauce" gf, l think she used 4 lines. The Smith family from NJ, under $10. The recent winning pool from San Jose, 11people chipped in $2.00 a piece. My point? That it does not require a player to purchase lots of tickets in order to win. So quibbling about " it's not high enough" etc etc at the price of $2.00 a ticket seems pretty shortsighted. It's still a dream of millions for change you probably could find lying around in your vehicle, under the mats,ashtray, side doors, glove compartment..etc etc.
Jack Whitaker spent $100 on a drawing.
He is an oddity, l wouldn't have expected anything less. After all, he showed up at a bar or nightclub with a briefcase full of money, decided to take a leak in some spot out back, left the BC there & ended up calling the cops because " someone had stolen his briefcase" inside the establishment.
"A $2 ticket is currently worth $1.12"
Not even close. After losing 36% to federal income tax that $265 million cash value becomes $170 million. The odds of 1 in 302 million means it would take (as an average) $604 million worth of tickets to get that $170 million after federal tax net. That's an expectation value just a hair over 28 cents. If you don't have to pay state income tax, too. Based on the currently projected sales there's less than a 12% chance of a winner, but a single winner is 15 times as likely as multiple winners.
From a probabilistic standpoint the cash value has to be about $943 million for a single winner to see an expectation value of $2 for their $2 bet. Right now that translates to an advertised jackpot of almost $1.7 billion. Of course at that point we'd probably see sales similar to the record PB jackpot. Let's call it 302 million tickets just to makes ticket sales equal to the odds. The odds of a winner would be about 63%, with the chance of a single winner being only 1.4 times as likely as the chance of multiple winners. The upside of jackpot fatigue (along with higher odds) is that for any particular jackpot amount the chances of a single winner are a bit better than they used to be.
"No winner that l can remember, has said that they have wagered hundreds of dollars in order to win the jackpot."
There was probably never a jackpot winner named Floyd. Only a very tiny percentage of players are named Floyd, just like only a very tiny percentage of tickets are bought by people who spend $100 or more on a single drawing. Being named Floyd (or John, FTM) doesn't do anything to change the odds of winning, but buying 100 tickets makes you 100 times as likely to win as somebody who buys one ticket. Of course even 100 tickets only gives you a 1 in 3 million chance.
The thing is, $2 is $2 and $100 is $100 no matter what the jackpot is. Playing the lottery isn't sensible, but if you're going to play it makes more sense to play when it's $400 million than $40 million.
I don't know which is worse:
those that insist on complaining the pot is never big enough for the money/odds/taxes or those who wake up with the ever popular spent to much on the lottery hangover the next morning
put your $2 in the pot and smile smile smile
to the next big winner hopefully it'll be ME!!
a lotto pool at work is the best way to go!! $2. to "jump in"
Are you near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin? They used to sell lots of big winners in that town.
Bleudog101, It is called, "The Miracle Mile".
I am surprised you have not been there. I guess it is too far away from Kentucky.
Good Luck to all LP members, staff and Todd.
And I don’t understand why people who don’t play the lottery, even when it’s over $400m keeps posting in a forum thread about lottery. Why are they here?
I enjoy the company of all LP participants. Some are waiting for the billion-dollar jackpots.
They are not deceiving us by saying they have bet when they have not.
Sometimes each one of us may need to take a break. Get some fresh air.
Good Luck to you on Tuesday night. Will it be Wednesday morning for you?
Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whitaker, David Lee Edwards, Billy Bob Harrell jr., and many other past winners did not learn how to follow directions. Especially correct advice. It is an acquired skill.
It will take practice to know how to interview prospective financial advisors. We do not do it every day. Then after we have made our selections we must be willing to listen. They will have the life experience that we do not have yet.
noise-gate,
Whitaker wasn't the normal player but I don't think he was that much of an oddity. I've been in line behind plenty of people who have literally a stack of play slips in their hand, not to mention some of them are irked that they have to fill out play slips. (Prior to that they'd get a kick out of being able to tell someone else what to do. The store got sick of it and posted a sign that they must fill out play slips.)
They're not betting in the $100 range but some are close. And I'm in a rural area.
The next time the news shows a story about a big jackpot take a good look at some of the tickets people have played.
True.
The expectation value is around 0.55.
I bought a few tickets anyway, seeing it as a fun way to pay taxes.
At least $1.5 on my main home. If you wanted to stay anonymous, this would sure blow it.
I would probably use a business name for the home.
We chip in $4 a week and split it between MM & PB.
Yes wednesday morning it is. I login and watch my tickets online or check the drawing on fl-lottery on youtube.
" There was probably never a jackpot winner named Floyd"- talk about putting a pox on your namesake there big fella. Don't sell yourself short..just yet.
Here is some advice after winning this MM jackpot. When consulting your financial advisers use a whiteboard. Write Legal, Financial, and Fun at the top. The fun will be the easy part.
There was this guy though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA3hJEbUp7g
I'm not playing
Too much money!
No, music* never been there, don't think that I've ever been to Wisconsin come to think of it.
Bought MM in IN last night and PB tonight as well. Watch me win here instead!
"the jackpot is so large that hundreds of millions of tickets are sold. That means that if you are the winner, you most likely will have to split it with someone else, making the payback % just as bad as it usually is."
The last time over one hundred million MM tickets were sold was on July 8, 2016 when the advertised jackpot was $508 million and tickets cost $1. PB sold slightly over 100 million tickets this past January when the advertised jackpot was almost $560 million. I believe the MM record in ticket sales was when 651,915,940 were sold for the $640 million March 30, 2012 drawing and the PB record was 635,103,137 on January 13, 2016 advertised $1.58 billion jackpot.
Having duplicate tickets depends on the the number of possible outcomes and how many tickets are sold. The record MM sales suggest at least 3 duplicates and the split winnings were well over the then 175 million possible outcomes. IMO the problem with your rate of return analyse is players are betting $2 for a "CHANCE" to win millions or if not winning one of the higher value secondary prizes. And lots of players are happy winning something while the others in the 93% that won't match a number or the bonus number say "there is always next drawing". Friday's jackpot sales were about 27% more than on Tuesday, but 31,466,577 tickets sold wasn't nearly enough to suggest selling a jackpot winning ticket.
You'll never win a "it's not worth playing" debate because it's $2 to win millions. IMO it's worth debating those that expect to eventually win either.
"said that they have wagered hundreds of dollars in order to win the jackpot"
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you meant a single MM or PB winner wagering more than $200 to win the jackpot. A huge difference between Whittaker's $100 bet and "hundreds of dollars. We didn't win, but I was in a pool that bought 300 Ohio Super Lotto tickets for a $40 million jackpot and I wouldn't call that "hundreds of dollars" either.
There was lots of money and probably thousands wagered on both the Michigan and Massachusetts WinfFall games by single players, but they played hoping the jackpot would roll and benefited by the the inflated secondary prize payouts. There is a good possibility the 31.466,577 sold for last Friday's drawing will at least double for Tuesday's drawing and if not won, look for the buying frenzy to start.
That's exactly what l meant Stack, but CT threw Jack into the conversation, and l simply rode the wave. My original thought on my post was from an experience l had when the jackpot was over or close to a billion dollars, you remember that. Well l was driving through Union City, stopped by a convenient store that afternoon, and there were 5 people in line, the guy at the counter had put down $2000 for the tickets, and the people in line were getting frustrated with waiting. I mean this guy was not asking for QP's - he came into the store with piles of playslips he had already filled out, and it took time to run those through. I know he did not win the top prize, cause one winner was from Southern Cal, the other winner was * Good Morning America, Kentucky/ Tennessee Robinson, the 3rd- No idea.
" There was probably never a jackpot winner named Floyd"- talk about putting a pox on your namesake there big fella.
Would you think I've jinxed everybody (or increased the chances of a rollover) if I pointed out that nobody has ever won a $470 million jackpot? Or that nobody has won a jackpot with a cash value if $265.3 million? Interestingly enough, somebody did win a jackpot with a cash value of $263.5 million a year and a half ago.
I know for absolute certainty that I've done a few things that were never done by anybody else, but there's already precedent for people with uncommon names winning record setting amounts. You remember Mavis, right?
Everyone here is posting that the jackpot won't be won or it's not enough.
Just remember:
except I am posting that I will win it. I may be jinxing myself but so be it.
You do know how to celebrate with all those players with balloons! Party!!
Will you invite all of us to your Winner's party?
Music.... I think you left something out of your first sentence....Let me help you. I believe what you meant to say was
"Except I am posting that I know CDanaT will win it"... There, fixed it !!!! Looks MUCH better
LOL!! Please look at the "Man" in the mirror and believe that you are already the winner!
Thank You for the help.