The Mega Millions jackpot has surpassed $1 billion for the fifth time ever

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot has surpassed $1 billion for the fifth time in its history.

Record-breaking jackpot: Following no winner from Friday’s drawing, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot has reached over $1 billion.
* This is the fifth instance in the game’s history where the jackpot surpassed the billion-dollar mark.
* If a winner is selected in Tuesday night’s drawing, they’ll have the option to collect $1.05 billion over 30 years, or take a lump sum payment of $527.9 million.

Previous wins and odds: Other smaller prizes have already been won, while the lottery winner’s chances are roughly 1 in 300 million.
* Recent wins included a $5 million prize in Pennsylvania and four $1 million prizes in Arizona, California, New York, and Pennsylvania.
* Any buyer of a single Mega Millions lottery ticket has a 1 in 300 million chance of winning.

The catch and expert opinion: While technically achievable, buying every ticket to guarantee a win is discouraged due to high costs and logistic difficulties.
* At $2 per ticket, over $600 million would be spent to buy the required 300 million tickets, but a win of $1 billion could still result in a profit.
* However, Harvard statistician Mark Glickman notes that if another person wins simultaneously, winnings would be halved, wiping out any profits.
* Also, filling out 300 million individual tickets would present a significant time issue.

Historical context: This record comes two weeks after a California Powerball winner bagged $1.08 billion and another Californian won a staggering $2.04 billion in November 2022.
* This $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot is the largest lottery prize ever won.

View original article on NPR

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