Mega Millions, Powerball offer more than $2 billion in 2 upcoming drawings
Andrew Sharp
The winning numbers for Tuesday’s world-record $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot have been drawn: 5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 5.
The Megaplier is 3x.
On Wednesday, the Powerball drawing is for an estimated $620 million jackpot (cash value of $354.3 million). That drawing will be held at 10:59 p.m.
While it has been since July since anyone won the Mega Millions grand prize, there continues to be million-dollar winners on a regular basis. In the last drawing, 15 tickets won at least $1 million, and one was worth $2 million. The Powerball also had several $1 million winners in the last drawing.
The winning numbers for Saturday's Powerball drawing were 16-54-57-62-69, Powerball 23, Power Play 2X.
[Picking your own lottery numbers? These are the most common Mega Millions, Powerball draws]
How to play Mega Millions:
Mega Millions tickets are $2 each. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 70 and one number, the Mega Ball, from 1 to 25. In many states, there's also a "Megaplier" number you can pick that will increase the total for a non-jackpot win.
The prizes increase from $2 as players match more numbers. Four plus the Mega Ball, for example, are worth $10,000 (odds of 1 in 931,001).
Some states let players buy a "just the jackpot" ticket for $3, which gives two chances for the jackpot, according to Mega Millions.
The Mega Millions drawings dates and times are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m.
The cutoff for buying tickets varies by location. In Delaware, you can buy them until 9:45 on the night of the drawing.
Source: Mega Millions
How to play Powerball:
Powerball tickets also cost $2 each. Players try to match five numbers (the white balls) from 1 to 69 for a $1 million prize. If they also match the Power Play number, that's worth $2 million. Players also pick a number from 1 to 26 for the red Powerball number. If they match all five plus the Powerball, they win the jackpot.
Prizes start at $4 for matching just the Powerball and go up from there with more matches. A Power Play match increases each prize.
Four white balls plus the Powerball, for example, will win $50,000, with that increasing to up to $500,000 with a 10X Power Play match.
Powerball drawing times are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m.
Source: Powerball
[Delaware one of six states where Powerball and Mega Millions lottery winners stay anonymous]
World record prize?
In one sense, the Mega Millions isn't yet the world's largest, as Spain's Christmas lottery "El Gordo" has reached a higher total. But that prize is divided into many winning tickets, USA Today notes. The grand prize in 2017 was worth almost $5 million in U.S. dollars, making the current Mega Millions jackpot hundreds of times larger.
The prize is almost two and a half times larger than the previous Mega Millions record prize of $656 million, and edges out the previous all time record, a Powerball drawing of $1.586 billion in 2016, Mega Millions said.
Of course, the winners won't actually get to keep all that money, or even close to all of it. CNBC noted that after taxes, the Mega Millions prize would be about $490 million to $570 million, not even half the jackpot. For the Powerball, you'd get to keep about $192 million to $223.3 million.
There's a reason the jackpots are as large as they are. The odds of winning the Mega Millions are a somewhat unlikely 1 in 302,575,350. The odds of taking the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.
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