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Lottery dreamers are setting their sights on the rising Mega Hundreds of thousands jackpot drawing on Friday after a ticket price greater than $1 billion was bought for the Powerball lottery. Right here’s a have a look at how this drawing compares to different jackpots and why these winnings have turn out to be so excessive.
HOW DOES THIS LATEST MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT STACK UP?
The brand new jackpot for the Mega Hundreds of thousands drawing has reached an estimated $720 million, making it the sport’s fifth highest. It hasn’t but damaged into the highest 10 highest lottery jackpots in U.S. historical past, although.
If somebody picks all 5 numbers, plus the gold Mega Ball, they are going to have the choice of taking the prize in yearly increments paid over 29 years or a $369.6 million lump sum earlier than taxes. The final time a Mega Hundreds of thousands participant hit the highest prize was April 18. The jackpot will proceed rising till somebody wins.
POWERBALL WINNING TICKET
A lot of the consideration had been on Powerball till a profitable ticket was drawn this week. Offered at a tiny neighborhood retailer in downtown Los Angeles, it’s price an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. historical past and the third largest within the historical past of the sport. The profitable numbers for Wednesday night time’s drawing have been: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and pink Powerball 24.
WHY ARE LOTTERY JACKPOTS SO LARGE THESE DAYS?
That’s how the video games have been designed. The credit score for such large jackpots comes all the way down to math and harder odds. In 2015, the Powerball lottery lengthened the chances of profitable from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million. Mega Hundreds of thousands adopted two years later by lengthening the chances of profitable the highest prize from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million. The most important lottery jackpots within the U.S. have come since these modifications have been made.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST JACKPOTS EVER WON IN AMERICA?
The most important — a whopping $2.04 billion — was a Powerball jackpot that hit on Nov. 8, 2022, with the profitable ticket bought in California. The following largest jackpot additionally was a Powerball prize of $1.586 billion on Jan. 13, 2016. However that prize was cut up amongst three profitable tickets bought in California, Florida and Tennessee. The third, fourth and fifth largest have been every Mega Hundreds of thousands prizes, with $1.537 billion going to a single winner in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018; $1.35 billion received in Maine on Jan. 13 earlier this yr; and $1.337 billion received in Illinois on July 29, 2022.
WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS?
Consultants have lengthy cautioned the lottery acts as regressive tax on the poor, with these least capable of afford to lose cash shopping for essentially the most tickets. Lots of the ticket patrons do not even contemplate the lottery as playing, stated Lia Nower, a professor and the director of the Middle for Playing Research at Rutgers College.
“Folks purchase them for little children,” she stated. “So it’s type of the gateway drug for introduction into playing. And but there’s, you understand, there’s no accountable playing program for lottery tickets. There isn’t self-exclusion in states that can help you buy them on-line or limits betting or any of the completely different methods which might be employed in on-line casinos or sports activities wagering.”
WHERE IS MEGA MILLIONS PLAYED?
Mega Hundreds of thousands is performed in 45 states in addition to Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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Nicholas Ingram contributed from Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.