The estimated jackpot in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing is $615 million. A smaller $450 million jackpot is up for grabs in the Mega Millions drawing on Friday. The odds of winning either jackpot are abysmal. (Renee Schiavone/Patch),
ACROSS AMERICA — It’s been a while since lottery players nationwide felt this kind of lottery fever as both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots grow ahead of weekend drawings.
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The Mega Millions jackpot for the Friday night drawing is an estimated $450 million, while a $615 million jackpot is up for grabs in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing. The jackpot grew after no ticket matched all six numbers in the July 4 drawing – the white balls 21, 33, 54, 61 and 67, plus the gold Mega Ball 12. The jackpot has been growing since it was last won in New York on April 18.
No one matched all six numbers drawn in Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing. They were 17, 24, 48, 62, 68 and the Powerball number, 23. The last time the jackpot was hit was with a winning ticket in Ohio worth $252.6 million on April 19.
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The odds of winning the jackpot for either game are abysmal — for Powerball, about 1 in 292.2 million, no matter how many tickets are sold. The chances of winning a Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 302.5 million.
The Powerball Drawing
The record $2,040,100,000 ticket sold for the Nov. 7 Powerball drawing isn’t too distant a memory to spark a rush to lottery ticket outlets ahead of Saturday’s drawing. Powerball drawing days. Drawings are held three times a week, at 10:59 p.m. EST on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturday.
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Winners may choose to receive their prize as an annuity paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or they may take a cash payout, which is estimated at $310.6 million for Saturday’s game. Nearly all winners choose cash.
The estimated jackpot is already one of the 10 all-time largest Powerball jackpots, bumping the $590.5 million prize claimed in Florida in May 2013.
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A Powerball ticket costs $2. For an additional $1 per ticket, players can multiply non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times with the Power Play feature. One caveat: The 10X multiplier is only available when the advertised jackpot annuity is $150 million or less.
To win the jackpot, a player must match all white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. Lottery officials say chances are higher when players don’t choose their own numbers. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years were picked by a computer.
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The Mega Millions Drawing
Mega Millions drawings are held 11 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mega Millions tickets cost $2. Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers — five different numbers from 1 to 70 (the white balls) and one number from 1 to 25 (the gold Mega Ball). There are a total of nine ways to win a prize in Mega Millions, ranging from the jackpot down to $2.
As with Powerball, winners may choose a one-time, lump-sum payment that is equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool, or an annuity paid out in 30 installments. The cash payout for the Friday night drawing is $225.6 million.
This year started out with six jackpot winners in less than four months – a number far more typical of a full year! The first was a big one — $1.348 billion won in Maine on Jan. 13, the second-largest prize awarded in Mega Millions history.
That was followed by three quick wins. The very next drawing, on Jan. 17, produced a $20 million win in New York. Two drawings later, $33 million was won in Massachusetts on Jan. 24, and just two drawings after that, Massachusetts repeated with another jackpot win, this time at $31 million.
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Then came two more wins in New York, at $483 million on April 14 followed by $20 million on April 18. That was the first time in Mega Millions history that two jackpots have been won in the same state in consecutive drawings
The 45 states (along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) that offer Plotteries give a percentage of ticket sale revenue to various state funds, programs and causes, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
