Posted on: December 24, 2024, 11:40h.
Last updated on: December 24, 2024, 11:52h.
With the Mega Millions jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing up to $1 billion and the holiday season in full swing, the interstate lottery game is reporting a surge in ticket sales.
The Mega Millions Consortium, which operates Mega Millions on behalf of the game’s participating lotteries and jurisdictions, initially projected the Christmas Eve jackpot to be around $944 million. However, after strong sales were experienced over the past 48 hours, the advertised jackpot for the 30-year annuity has climbed to $1 billion.
Lottery tickets make great gifts, though responsible gaming advocates stress they are inappropriate for kids and anyone else under the legal age to play. At $1 billion, tonight’s jackpot is the seventh-richest in Mega Millions history.
Top-10 Mega Millions Jackpots — Winning Ticket(s)
- $1.602B — Aug. 8, 2023 — 1, Florida
- $1.537B — Oct. 23, 2018 — 1, South Carolina
- $1.348B — Jan. 13, 2023 — 1, Maine
- $1.337B — July 29, 2022 — 1, Illinois
- $1.128B — March 26, 2024 — 1, New Jersey
- $1.05B — Jan. 22, 2021 — 1, Michigan
- $1B — Dec. 24, 2024 — ??
- $810M — Sept. 10, 2024 — 1, Texas
- $656M — March 30, 2012 — 3, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- $648M — Dec. 17, 2013 — 2, California, Georgia
Each winner overcame the dismal odds of just one in 302,575,350 in matching the five white balls and gold Mega Ball. The odds of being struck by lightning, the CDC says, is about one in 40 million. You also have much better odds of dying in a plane crash at about 1 in 11 million.
If no one wins tonight, the Mega Millions jackpot will roll over for a 30th time for the game’s next drawing on Friday.
Electronic Sales Improves Estimates
Mega Millions and Powerball are much better today at projecting the true amount of the advertised jackpot since most sales are now handled electronically. Electronic vending machines and online sales automatically relay data on sales volumes to state lotteries, which in turn transition the statistics to the Mega Millions Consortium.
When Mega Millions debuted in the 1990s, paper tickets led in terms of sales volume. Paper tickets require lottery retailers to report the number of sales at the end of each day to their state lottery.
Tuesday night’s $1 billion drawing goes down at 11 p.m. EST from Atlanta. Most states stop selling Mega Millions tickets for that night’s drawing 60 minutes before the draw.
Jackpot Breakdown
If a ticket hits the five white balls and gold Mega Ball, the winner will need to choose whether to take the $1 billion paid out over 30 years or the one-time cash option of approximately $448.8 million.
After federal taxes, the cash option would be reduced to $282.8 million. The prize would then be subjected to state taxes in 36 states and Washington, DC. States implement varying taxes on lottery winnings from 2.5% in Arizona to as high as 10.9% in New York.
California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming are the best states to win a lottery jackpot, as those states do not consider lottery earnings as taxable income.
