U.S. Mega Millions lottery hits record $1.6 billion after no winners on Friday

[rooster59]

U.S. Mega Millions lottery hits record $1.6 billion after no winners on Friday

By Alex Dobuzinskis

 

 

(Reuters) - The U.S. Mega Millions jackpot grew to $1.6 billion, a world record for a lottery, after Friday's drawing produced no winner of the grand prize, officials said.

 

The next Mega Millions draw will be on Tuesday, after no one hit all of the numbers of 15, 23, 53, 65, 70 and the Mega Ball 7 during Friday night's draw.

 

"Mega Millions has already entered historic territory, but it's truly astounding to think that now the jackpot has reached an all-time world record," Gordon Medenica, lead director of the Mega Millions Group, said in a statement.

 

The record jackpot level for the multi-state U.S. lottery follows a move by the game's organizers a year ago to lower the odds of winning, to one-in-303 million from one-in-259 million, in an effort to generate larger prizes.

 

If a player hits all six numbers to win the jackpot, they can opt for an immediate cash payment of $904 million or receive the $1.6 billion prize over 29 years.

 

The current jackpot beats the previous record, a $1.586 billion jackpot for a Powerball drawing in 2016, said Seth Elkin, a spokesman for Mega Millions.

 

A Spanish lottery called El Gordo typically generates a larger purse than Mega Millions or Powerball, but that money is split between many different winners and no single prize in El Gordo approaches the size of the latest Mega Millions jackpot, Elkin said.

 

The 24 semi-weekly Mega Millions drawings have failed to produce a top winner since July 24, when an 11-member office pool in Santa Clara County, California, shared a $543 million jackpot.

 

That is partly by design.

 

When lottery officials changed the rules for Mega Millions in October 2017 to shrink the odds of winning and increase ticket prices to $2 from $1, then-Mega Millions president Debbie Alford said the innovations would deliver "attention-grabbing jackpots" and generate increased revenues.

 

Leaders of the U.S. lottery industry, which generates about $80 billion in annual revenue, have experimented with different rules and marketing strategies as they have encountered falling interest among millennials, who are used to the almost-instant gratification of online games and social media. https://reut.rs/2AkTiya

 

Rule changes have also been made over the years to decrease the odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball, another popular multi-state lottery.

 

Powerball has a separate draw scheduled on Saturday. Its jackpot rose on Friday to $470 million from $430 million, with a lump sum value of $268.6 million.

 

Mega Millions tickets are sold in 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Several states allow online ticket purchases, but they prohibit out-of-state and foreign purchases, Elkin said.

 

If more than one winner is picked, the jackpot would be divided proportionately, as happened when the previous Mega Millions record of $656 million was drawn in March 2012 and was shared by winners in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland, a lottery official said.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-10-21

[Lupatria]

There will be the first U.S. revolution with pillages in thousands of stores selling lottery tickets in case a Latino or Arab hits the Jackpot ????

Edited October 21, 2018 by Lupatria

[malcolminthemiddle]

Is it possible to buy a lottery ticket from Thailand?

[ronaldo0]

37 minutes ago, malcolminthemiddle said:

Is it possible to buy a lottery ticket from Thailand?

Yes . Use thelotter.com and a vpn . Could buy it before a few weeks ago no problem without vpn but now seems blocked unless you use one.

Save your money as I already have the winning numbers !! ????

Oh and if you think that you will get the actual prize of what they say then forget it . The US taxman is going to take around 30-50% in taxes !!!

[how241]

If I won,  I could live with paying the taxes.

[tweedledee2]

There was an article on Yahoo News titled "Here's what you can buy with the $1 billion lottery jackpot."  I didn't read it, but it must be a very long list.  

[Esso49]

2 hours ago, malcolminthemiddle said:

Is it possible to buy a lottery ticket from Thailand?

if you need to do it there are third party companies on line that you can use. You would need to google them.

[Esso49]

1 hour ago, ronaldo0 said:

Yes . Use thelotter.com and a vpn . Could buy it before a few weeks ago no problem without vpn but now seems blocked unless you use one.

Save your money as I already have the winning numbers !! ????

Oh and if you think that you will get the actual prize of what they say then forget it . The US taxman is going to take around 30-50% in taxes !!!

Bit of a bummer only ending up with say $ 600,000,000 US.   But guess just have to cut down here and there ????

[Srikcir]

10 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

Bit of a bummer only ending up with say $ 600,000,000 US.   But guess just have to cut down here and there ????

There is an annuity option.

The Mega Millions annuity is paid out as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments. Each payment is 5% bigger than the previous one. This helps protect winners’ lifestyle and purchasing power in periods of inflation.

http://www.megamillions.com/difference-between-cash-value-and-annuity

Withholding for income taxes will be based on annual distributions.

There are various legal methods to minimize tax obligations or completely defer them years into the future using business investment strategies. Probably could get taxes down to an average annual rate of 10%.

POTUS knows that game.

[Esso49]

1 minute ago, Srikcir said:

There is an annuity option.

The Mega Millions annuity is paid out as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments. Each payment is 5% bigger than the previous one. This helps protect winners’ lifestyle and purchasing power in periods of inflation.

http://www.megamillions.com/difference-between-cash-value-and-annuity

Withholding for income taxes will be based on annual distributions.

There are various legal methods to minimize tax obligations or completely defer them years into the future using business investment strategies. Probably could get taxes down to an average annual rate of 10%.

POTUS knows that game.

but will I live to 109 to be able to collect it for the next 29 years ?

[ronaldo0]

49 minutes ago, how241 said:

If I won,  I could live with paying the taxes.

Yeah im sure I could too. The example I seen online was 700 million. The amount is initially taxed at a rate , then there was something else , winners tax also which varied depending on which state you were in. Basically if it said 700 million then at the worst case you could end up with around ONLY 290 million !! Although im quite willing to accept these problems !! ????

[ronaldo0]

6 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

but will I live to 109 to be able to collect it for the next 29 years ?

Also with any yearly payment I wouldn't consider it if it ceased when you died !!

Although I don't know what would happen if that was the case .

[Skeptic7]

Got 5 tix! Soon to be a crumpled ball in the trash bin...????

[Skeptic7]

4 hours ago, malcolminthemiddle said:

Is it possible to buy a lottery ticket from Thailand?

Thai lottery...yes. 

[GinBoy2]

I play the lottery once in a blue moon, but this week I think it's worth risking (wasting) $20

[neeray]

^{I've always been amazed at the excitement around the super huge jack pots. What, 10, 50, a hundred million isn't enough for anybody? They want the billion?}

^{I understand that the huge jack pots are a proven sales success but my logic says give thousands of people a chance to be a millionaire should sell many more tickets than only 1 billion dollar winner. Much better for society too.}