‘Lottery Fever’ Grips GA As Mega Millions Jackpot Soars To $1.1B

GEORGIA — The jackpot in Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing has soared to $1.1 billion in a bout of “lottery fever” that has swept Georgia and the rest of the country.

The Powerball jackpot climbed to $865 million in Wednesday’s drawing after no one matched the winning six numbers in Monday’s drawing — the white balls 7, 11, 19, 53, 68 and the red Powerball of 23.

The $1.1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the fifth largest in the history of the game, grew after no one in Friday’s drawing matched all six numbers drawn — the white balls 3, 8, 31, 35 and 44, plus the gold Mega Ball, 16. Drawings are held twice a week, at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The cash payout for Tuesday’s jackpot currently stands at $525.8 million. Most people take the cash option with federal taxes taken off the top, though jackpot prizes can be spread over 30 years.

Georgia residents who want to get in on the action need to acquire their tickets by 10 p.m.

“Lottery fever continues to spread throughout the country,” Georgia Lottery president and CEO Gretchen Corbin, the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a news release. “Large jackpots provide entertainment and winnings for our players while contributing to the beneficiary programs funded by each lottery.”

Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has ventured into billion-dollar-territory six times.

Georgia players have had some good luck playing Mega Millions. Jackpots claimed in the state since 2002 include:

Since the game was rolled out in 2002, Georgia has had 15 jackpot winners:

• $23.3 million, Nov. 11, 2003
• $150 million, Sept. 30, 2003
• $50 million, Aug. 8
• $131 million, Jan. 18, 2005
• $163 million, Sept. 15, 2006
• $195 million each, March 6, 2007
• $275 million, Feb. 22, 2008
• $133 million, Aug. 29, 2008
• $42 million, Oct. 21, 2008
• $12 million, Sept. 1, 2009
• $72 million, Jan. 24, 2012
• $50 million, Nov. 27, 2012
• $324 million each, Dec. 17, 2013
• $7.5 million each, July 22, 2016
• $83 million, Nov. 18, 2016

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2. In most states, players can add the Megaplier option for $1. Overall, there were 2,564,114 winning tickets across all prize tiers in Friday’s drawing.

Six tickets matched the five white balls to win the second-tier prize of $1 million. The players included one in Virginia who bought the Megaplier option, which was 3X, yielding a $3 million prize. The other $1 million tickets were sold in California, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska and Texas.

Eighty tickets matched four white balls and the Mega Ball to win third-tier prizes worth $10,000. Twelve of those prizes are worth $30,000 because the player purchased the Multiplier option.

The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Dec. 8 with two tickets sold in California. Since then, more than 26.2 million winning tickets have been sold across all prize tiers. These include second-tier prizes of $1 million — or more if the player bought the Megaplier option — sold in 20 states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Mega Millions said five jackpot prizes worth $1 billion or more have gone to players in South Carolina (2018), Michigan (2021), Illinois (2022), and Maine and Florida (2023). The Florida prize of $1.602 billion was the largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Lottery officials reminded players to play responsibly. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24; the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.