A Mega Millions lottery ticket purchased in Chicago, Thursday, March 29, 2022, shows the drawing date of Friday, March 30, 2022. With the Mega Millions jackpot over $500 million, Illinois picked the right week to become the first state in the nation to sell lottery tickets online, and other states are watching closely to see how it plays out. They're also wondering if the payoff will prompt Illinois to take the next big step: launching online poker, blackjack and other casino games.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A Mega Millions lottery ticket purchased in Chicago, Thursday, March 29, 2022, shows the drawing engagement of Friday, March 30, 2022. With the Mega Millions jackpot over $500 million, Illinois picked the correct week to get the outset country in the nation to sell lottery tickets online, and other states are watching closely to see how it plays out. They're also wondering if the payoff will prompt Illinois to take the adjacent big footstep: launching online poker, blackjack and other casino games.(AP Photo/Charles Male monarch Arbogast)

The Mega Millions jackpot is at a world tape $640 meg. But before yous start thinking about what you're going to do with all of that cash - at that place are some basic things anybody with a ticket needs to know, specially if you're lucky enough to be holding the winning numbers.

When are the drawings held?

The Mega Millions drawing will be held Friday from Atlanta at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, ten:00 p.m. Cardinal Time, 8:00 p.thou. Pacific Time.

What's the latest I tin buy a Mega Millions ticket?

If you're a last infinitesimal kind of person - even with more a half-a-billion on the line - not to worry. You lot can buy tickets upwardly to fifteen minutes before the cartoon. (10:45 p.m. Eastern Time, 9:45 p.grand. Key Time, seven:45 p.m. Pacific Time) Except if you live in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, where 9:fifty p.thou. is the borderline.

Where can I play Mega Millions?

You can buy Mega Millions tickets from lottery retailers/agents in 42 states plus the District of Columbia and the U. Southward. Virgin Islands; a total of 44 jurisdictions. The viii states that do not have Mega Millions drawings are Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Alaska, and Hawaii.

What are the odds of winning?

The math is clear: The more tickets you buy, the amend your chances of winning. So, if you lot buy 10 tickets filled out 10 different means, your odds of winning the jackpot ten in 176 1000000.

Mike Catalano, chairman of the mathematics section at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, Southward.D., said he covers the odds of winning in lottery games with his students to show them just how unlikely it is to win large.

You are about 50 times more probable to get struck by lightning than winning the lottery, based on the ninety people a year getting struck past lightning. Based on other U.S. averages, you're almost eight,000 times more probable to be murdered than to win the lottery, and well-nigh twenty,000 times more than likely to die in a machine crash than hitting the lucky numbers, Catalano said.

What could I do with all of that coin?

Assuming the jackpot were $540 million, that means for 1 winner the lump sum would be $389 million, and the last estimate later on land and federal taxes is around $253 million.

To put $253 million into context, you could:

-- pay off 1/x,000 of the U.South. debt;

-- [on average] feed a family of 4 for 22,381 years OR feed 22,381 families of four for 1 year;

-- purchase 281 one thousand thousand Twinkies;

-- purchase 1,265 seats/trips to outer space aboard Virgin Galactic;

-- outset a visitor and pay ten employees $100,000 for 253 years;

-- buy Michael Jackson's estate [$23.9 Million], Britney Spears' mansion [$two.9 million], Madonna'due south Beverly Hills mansion [$28 million], Jerry Seinfeld's Colorado estate [$18 1000000] and Michael Jordan's Chicago-area estate [$29 million] AND Even so have $150 million remaining.

every day

:

-- to burn through information technology in a yr, you'd need to spend $693,150 per day

-- to burn through it in 80 years, you'd need to spend $viii,658 per day

If you lot win - should you take an annuity or lump sum?

Bottom line: Get a fiscal adviser, accountant and lawyer.

Mega Millions does not accept the exact number of lottery winners that take taken a lump sum versus annuity payments, but a spokesperson for Mega Millions says well-nigh have the greenbacks in a lump sum.

According to Mega Millions, a jackpot winner can choose the annuity option of almanac payments over a 26-year-menstruation or just a lump sum of cash.

Did you know? If you were in a loftier-yield savings account, yielding 0.8%, yous'd finish the twelvemonth with $255,038,930. That'south more $2 1000000 in interest even with the current extremely depression interest rates.

What happens if there are multiple winners?

With a jackpot this large, experts say, there also is a greater chance of multiple winners. If you have to share the jackpot with even 1 other winner, you've lost $30 million.

What fuels lottery mania?

It's hope.

A 2008 written report from Periodical of Adventure and Doubt explained that households earning under $13,000 per year spend about 9 percent of their income on lottery tickets on average, or effectually $645 a yr.

But for some, the run a risk — however small — of instantaneous, enormous wealth is leading to long lines at convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold.  It's why David Kramer, a lawyer in Lincoln, bought a Mega Millions ticket Thursday.

"To me, the value of the lottery ticket isn't the realistic opportunity to win," he said. "Information technology'south the fact that for 3 days, the daydreaming time virtually what I would do if I won is great amusement and, frankly, a very nice release from a normal twenty-four hours."

Some final words of wisdom...

Lottery officials are happy to have Fri's record Mega Millions jackpot fueling ticket sales, only even they caution against spending large amounts of money per person in the hopes of hitting information technology rich.

"Nosotros certainly know we go more pool play ... people coming in making very large purchases for a grouping," said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association that oversees the Mega Millions, Powerball and other lotteries. "When people ask me, I but tell them that the odds of a lottery game make it a game of fate. Merely buy a ticket, sit back and meet if fate points a finger at y'all for that day."

Contains cloth from The Associated Printing.

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