Mega Millions Jackpot Swells to Record Territory With $654 Million Prize
The current jackpot for Tuesday's drawing is just $2 million shy of breaking the Mega Millions record prize of $656 million
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(UPDATE: The jackpot has now hit a record $667 million for the Oct. 16 drawing.)
The Mega Millions jackpot has surged to record territory after no ticket matched all six numbers in Friday's drawing.
Tuesday's estimated $654 million jackpot would be the second-largest prize in Mega Millions history, lottery officials said. The record prize for Mega Millions was $656 million for the March 30, 2012, drawing.
"It’s so exciting for our players, and all of us, to see the Mega Millions jackpot getting so close to an all-time record level," said Gordon Medenica, Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium and Director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming. "With a little luck, we may still break that record by Tuesday."
Today.com
There were three winning tickets for the largest jackpot in U.S. history, which was drawn on Jan. 13, 2016. John and Lisa Robinson in Tennessee, Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt in Florida and Marvin and Mae Acosta in California all had the option of roughly $533 million before taxes as an annuity or taking $327.8 million as the lump-sum payment.
AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File)
A South Carolina resident claimed the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpotfrom the Oct. 23, 2018 drawing u2014 the largest jackpot payout to a single winner in U.S. history u2014 but elected to remain anonymous. The winner didn't come forward for months after the drawing and residents in the city speculated on why. Some theorized that the winner was on the run from police and feared a background check if he or she won. Some thought the winner was so overwhelmed at seeing the winning numbers pop up that he or she died on the spot. Lottery officials did not say why it took the anonymous winner five months to claim the prize.
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Mavis Wanczyk, of Chicopee, Mass., stands by a poster of her winnings during a news conference where she claimed the $758.7 million Powerball prize at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in Braintree, Mass. Officials said it is the largest single-ticket Powerball prize in U.S. history. At left is state treasurer Deb Goldberg.
Courtesy Powerball
Iowa resident Lerynne West, left, and Robert Bailey of New York shared the $687.8 million Powerball jackpot from the Oct. 27, 2019 drawing. West promised to use her prize money to help others and donated $500,000 to a veterans group and started a foundation. Bailey, who is 67 years old and a retired federal government employee, said he always plays New York lottery games, but when he realized he was the winner he was "in shock." Both winners took the cash lump sum totaling more than $198 million.
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Merle Butler, right, standing next to his wife Patricia Butler, holds up one of three winning tickets for the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot, on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Three school employees in Maryland, a state that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, claimed their share of the winnings u2014 $218.6 million u2014 under the name "The Three Amigos." A winner in Kansas, who also remained anonymous, also claimed a winning ticket in the March 30 drawing.
Steve Tran's winning Mega Millions ticket is seen in this image provided by the California Lottery. The winning numbers are on "Line C." Ira Curry, of Georgia, also picked the winning numbers in the December 2013 drawing. Both chose the lump sum option of $173 million.
An 84-year-old woman from Zephyrhills, Florida, Gloria C. Mackenzie, won the $590.5 million Powerball jackpot in May 2013. At the time, she was the biggest single lottery winner in U.S. history.
AP
Cindy and Mark Hill, center and second from right, stand with a ceremonial check from the Missouri Lottery for $293.75 million during a news conference, Friday, November 30, 2012. The couple won half of the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot. A winner in Arizona chose to remain anonymous, but was later revealed as Matthew Good through a public records request by the Associated Press.
Richard Wahl reacts while speaking during a news conference introducing him as the $533 million Mega Millions jackpot winner at the New Jersey Lottery headquarters, Friday, April 13, 2018, in Trenton, N.J. Wahl hit the winning numbers during the Friday, March 30 drawing on a ticket he bought at a gas station in Riverdale, N.J.
New Hampshire Lottery Commission
The New Hampshire woman who won the Powerball jackpot worth nearly $560 million took the state's lottery commission to court to fight to keep her identity anonymous. A judge ruled in favor of the woman, saying she met her burden of showing that her privacy interest outweighs the public's interest in disclosing her name in the nation's eighth-largest jackpot. The woman took home a lump-sum of $264 million.
A lawyer working for a trust claimed the $456.7 million Powerball ticket sold at a Pennsylvania convenience store. A lottery spokesman said the agency had no information on whether the ticket sold at a Speedway in Manheim for the March 17, 2018 drawing was won by one person or split among multiple people. The ticket was signed by the Emerald Legacy Trust and the attorney. The claimant opted to receive a cash prize of $273,959,698 instead of the $456 annuity value.
AP
The "Ocean's 16" from Toms River, N.J. snagged one of the three winning tickets for a $448 million Powerball jackpot in August 2013. The group works for the vehicle services department in Ocean County, N.J. Each of the workers walked away with roughly $3.8 million. Some of that money will help a few of those workers rebuild homes ravaged by Hurricane Sandy Click through to see more of some of the biggest lotto jackpot winners ever
AP
Paul White of Ham Lake, Minn., held one of the three winning Powerball tickets for the August 2013 $448 million jackpot. The 45-year-old father of two teens was the first to come forward and joked at a press conference that he was too busy to quit his job as an engineer. But he did say he would spend part of the winnings on a car he's had his eye on for several months.
NBC 4 New York
A group of 23 co-workers in Long Island claimed the largest jackpot in New York Lottery history for the Jan. 1, 2019 Mega Millions drawing. They opted to take the cash value of the annuitized prize, a single lump sum payment totaling $262,213,914. The group plays the lottery on a weekly basis with each member putting a dollar in an envelope that one member takes to purchase the groupu2019s tickets.
Martha Mendoza/AP
Parmeet Singh, son of Dixon Landing Chevron store owner Kulwinder Singh, speaks to reporters at the store in Milpitas, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. According to California lottery officials, the store sold the lone winning ticket for a $425 million Powerball jackpot but there was no immediate word on who may have won one of the largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history.
AP
B. Raymond Buxton, won $425 million in the Powerball, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif. He is the sole winner of February's $425 million Powerball jackpot. He bought the winning ticket for the Feb. 19 drawing at a convenience store in Milpitas, Calif.
Mega Millions
Raymond Moyer and Robyn Collier, hit the jackpot in April 2014 with a Quick Pick ticket purchased at a gas station in Merritt Island, Florida. They split the $414 million jackpot u2014 $207 million each u2014 with one other winner in Maryland, who chose to remain anonymous. They each took home a one-time, lump-sum payment in the amount of $115,448,968.00.
AP
The McCullars of Washington state split a $380 million Mega Millions prize in January 2011. Jim McCullar used his and his wife's birthdays as the winning numbers - 8/15/42 and 4/25/47.
Two Oregon couples cashed-in on one of the biggest lottery jackpots in history when they won the $340 million Powerball in November 2005. Frances and Bob Chaney, along with their daughter, Carolyn West, and her husband, Steve, chipped in to buy $40 worth of tickets in the small town of Jacksonville, in southwest Oregon. They took home a lump sum of $164.4 million before taxes.
AP
Louise White, 81 of Newport, R.I. won one of the biggest Powerball jackpots ever in February 2012: $336.4 million. But she kept the ticket in a Bible when she discovered she had won. After she consulted with attorneys, financial advisers and Rhode Island lottery officials, the camera shy 81-year-old came forward to collect her prize.
Mega Millions
An 80-year-old retired school principal was the sole winner of the Nov. 4, 2014 $326 million Mega Millions jackpot, the biggest prize in New York Lottery history. Harold Diamond of the Sullivan County town of Wurtsboro says he bought 10 tickets at a highway service center where he had stopped at his wife Carol's insistence to wait out a storm on Election Day.
Tayeb Souami of Little Ferry, New Jersey,was the sole winner of the May 19, 2018 Powerball jackpot. Souami said he has played the lottery for 21 years and his winning ticket was a quick pick. He said his son had been urging him for years to stop playing the lottery because he believed his dad would never win. Souami is glad he didn't listen. He elected to take the cash option with a payout of $183.2 million.
AP
Seven New York state workers shared a $319 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2011. The so-called "Albany Seven" work as IT specialists and program managers in the New York Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The lucky seven walked away with $19 million each after they decided to take a lump sum payout.
David Johnson, of East New York, claimed the $298.3 million jackpot for the Dec. 26, 2018 Powerball drawing. Johnson said that he did not realize that heu2019d won the jackpot until he was alerted by a co-worker: u201cI got a call that the winning ticket was sold at the store where I buy my tickets. I went to the store and gave the ticket to the clerk to check. He scanned it and said u2018congratulations.u2019 I needed to see it for myself, so I scanned and saw it read BIG WINNER.u201d Johnson opted to take the lump sum payment totaling $180,227,550.
Eight lucky ladies claimed a Powerball ticket worth $276 million in Charleston, W. Va., in March 2008. The women worked in a sheriff's department tax office and occasionally played the Powerball before they hit it big. They opted to walk away with a $139 million cash payout and each came away with $11.9 million.
The jackpot has been growing since July, when a group of California office workers won $543 million.
Three other Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year – $451 million on January 5 (Florida), $533 million on March 30 (New Jersey), and $142 million on May 4 (Ohio).
It costs $2 to play the game, but the odds of instant wealth aren't good. The chance of matching all six numbers and winning the jackpot is one in 302.5 million.
Mega Millions is played in 44 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot won in January 2016 by players in three states. That would make the estimated jackpot for Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing the fourth largest overall.
