Mega Millions’ August 7 $1.55 billion jackpot drawing is the largest in its history as players flock to buy tickets
- After no winning ticket was drawn on Friday the Mega Millions jackpot hit $1.55B
- There has been no Mega Millions jackpot winner in more than three months
- The previous largest Mega Millions jackpot was won in South Carolina in 2018
The Mega Millions jackpot for the Tuesday night draw has soared to $1.55billion – the largest in its history.
It comes after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Friday night. There has now not been a Mega Millions jackpot winner for nearly four months, since April 18.
Tuesday night’s jackpot could also be the third-largest overall in US lottery history.
The winner of the ticket would have the option of claiming a single lump sum of around $757.2million, or opting to claim the full prize in 29 annual payments.
The $1.55billion prize is just larger than the $1.537billion Mega Millions win in South Carolina in October 2018, according to lottery officials.
The Mega Millions jackpot for the Tuesday night draw has soared to $1.55billion – the largest in its history
Steven Tallant, 74, buys three Mega Millions lottery tickets at a gas station in Minneapolis on Monday, August 7
One lottery ticket vendor in Ohio told Spectrum News 1 that the unprecedented jackpot had caused sales to more than quadruple.
‘They spend a lot of money right now because of the highest amount,’ said Mohamad Ramzeen, owner of Madison Quickstop.
‘When the lotteries go up, especially the Powerball and Mega, people are playing a lot,’ Ramzeen said. ‘So everyone’s trying. Everyone needs money, right?’
Mark Glickman, a senior statistics lecturer at Harvard, told CBS News that although nothing can be done to increase the ouright chances of winning the jackpot, measures can be taken to maximize the size of winnings in the case you win.
‘Even though you cannot on a single drawing imporve your chances, what you can do is invoke a strategy that actually increases your chance of not sharing your prize fund,’ said Glickman.
Once
Rather than picking common number or patterns on tickets, what you should actually be doing is you should be taking random numbers,’ he said.
‘You should just completely have patternless random numbers, no birthdays that have special meaning to you, because other people are likely to make those same picks,’ he said.
Although in recent months there have been no Mega Millions jackpot winners, the year started off win a number of wins.
‘This year started out with six jackpot winners in less than four months – a number far more typical of a full year and indicative of the truly random nature of lottery drawings,’ the lottery said.
Mega Millions tickets, which are $2 each, are sold in all states except Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada.
The drawing will happen at 11pm ET.
