$750 million? The highest Mega Millions jackpots in recent history
People who try their luck on lottery tickets should start paying attention to the Mega Millions lottery as the jackpot has now risen up to $750 million. This is the second-largest jackpot in the history of the Mega Millions. On Tuesday night, no ticket matched all six numbers, meaning that today is another chance that someone might win.
The golden ticket is out there somewhere and whoever gets it will be receiving a massive payday. The jackpot value of the Mega Millions has been extremely high in recent history. Here are the highest Mega Millions jackpots won in recent history.
Billion-dollar jackpot
The largest Mega Millions jackpot was $1.537 billion, which was won on October 23rd, 2018, and was sold in South Carolina. The prize is also the largest that has been sold on a single number, meaning that one person won the entire jackpot.
It’s not the largest jackpot for any lottery, but that was spread out amongst a couple of winners. Powerball had a $1.586 billion jackpot won on January 13th, 2016 by multiple tickets. The winner of the Mega Millions claimed the prize on March 5th, 2019, but remained anonymous under South Carolina law.
Other big winners
The second-largest Mega Millions jackpot up until this point was $656 million and the winning ticket was drawn on March 30th, 2012. Three tickets were won in three different states: Illinois, Maryland, and Kansas. People really wanted to win this ticket as spending on Mega Millions for this jackpot was $1.5 billion.
The third-largest jackpot won was $648 million on the December 17th, 2013 drawing. Two winning tickets were drawn in California & Georgia. The Georgia prize was claimed the next morning while the California prize wasn’t claimed until January 3rd, 2014.
The fourth-largest jackpot was drawn on July 24th, 2018, with a value of $543 million. The holders of the winning ticket were eleven co-workers at a Wells Fargo branch in San Jose who chose to split the $320 million cash sum.
Other big winnings included the fifth-largest jackpot, $540 million, drawn on July 8th, 2016, won by a ticket in Indiana who chose the cash option. The sixth-largest jackpot, $533 million, was won in a March 30, 2018, drawing. The winning ticket was sold in a Riverdale Lukoil South Gas Station in NJ.
Odds of winning Mega Millions
Don’t expect to just go to your local convenience store, pick up a lottery ticket, and win. The odds of winning Mega Millions or any lottery for that matter is very improbable. The odds of winning the jackpot itself are one in 302,575,350 in the forty-five states it is available, along with Washington, D.C., & the Virgin Islands.
In fact, it’s hard to win any prize at all from the lottery tickets. The odds of winning the second prize of $1 million is one in 12,607,306. Then, the odds of winning the third prize of $10,000 is one in 931,001. The lowest prize you can win is two dollars and the odds of winning that is one in thirty-seven.
You probably have a better chance of finding two dollars on the street than you do of winning it in the lottery. The jackpot and even many of the smaller prizes are extremely rare to win, so you should wear whatever good luck charm it is that you think could get you all that money.
The drawing today will look to find the winner of the jackpot, but if not, then we will continue to wait until the golden ticket is found. Stay tuned to the drawings if you are trying to test your luck on the Mega Millions lottery ticket.
