Is this the night someone makes US lottery history?
Is this the night someone makes US lottery history?
Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing is for a jackpot estimated at $1.6 billion, which would be the nation’s largest ever.
That’s the value if the winner or winners select annuity payments. The one-time cash option is estimated at $905 million — still nothing to sneeze at.
You are more likely to get hit by lightning or attacked by a shark than win the Mega Millions.
However, despite the terrible odds – one in 302.5 million for those keeping score at home – it hasn’t stopped people across the Houston-area and the nation from heading out the buy tickets ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing.
KPRC2 has stopped in at several different gas stations across the city and everywhere there have been people scooping up their tickets in hopes of beating the odds.
Gary Smith says whether it’s getting hit by lightning or winning the lottery, “you’re going to feel it.”
Luis Gomez stopped by a Houston-area gas station early in the morning to pick up another ticket.
According to Gomez, he’s gone to Sugarland, Katy and other areas around the city in hopes that hitting multiple locations will help his luck.
Ronald Crowder, another lottery hopeful is confident luck is on his side.
“That’s it, that’s the winner right there,” Crowder said. “Just a mega and a million… Feeling lucky. Today is going to be my lucky day. If you don’t play you can’t win.”
It may not be a Houstonian, but someone will eventually match all six numbers and win the Mega Millions jackpot, which now stands at an estimated $1.6 billion.
The current US lottery jackpot record is $1.586 billion, split by three winning Powerball tickets in January 2016.
And speaking of Powerball: That game’s next drawing is Wednesday, for an estimated jackpot of $620 million.
That puts the jackpots for the nation’s two largest lotteries at more than $2.2 billion.
“It’s hard to overstate how exciting this is — but now it’s really getting fun,” Gordon Medenica, lead director of the Mega Millions Group and director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming, said over the weekend.
Mega Millions has already smashed its own jackpot record, which was $656 million, shared by winners in three states in March 2012.
The nation’s largest lottery jackpots have rolled for a few months.
No one has won the Mega Millions jackpot since July 24 when 11 co-workers in California split $543 million.
Powerball has climbed since there was a winner in New York on August 11.
Each Powerball or Mega Millions ticket is $2. The games are played in 44 states, Washington, D. C., and the US Virgin Islands. Powerball also is played in Puerto Rico.
However, if no one wins Tuesday’s drawing, the Texas Lottery said the jackpot for Friday’s drawing will reach $2 billion with a cash value of $1.142 billion.
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