Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to $449 Million for Tuesday Night Drawing

The potential winnings for Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot has soared to $449 million.

Your odds of winning Tuesday night's drawing? One in 259 million. Your odds for getting struck by lightning: One in 1,190,000.

Mega Millions® drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time. You can buy tickets until 10:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Not sure where to buy your lucky ticket? Virginia Lottery can help you find a location here.

A Herndon man won $5 million last year playing Mega Millions, after purchasing a ticket in Warrenton near his place of employment. He matched the first five numbers and spent an extra dollar to multiply his $1 million winnings to $5 million using the "Megaplier" option. A Richmond man got lucky last week, winning $1 million in the Powerball lottery.

If someone wins Tuesday night's drawing it would be the seventh largest payout, according to a compilation of mega-winners by CNN.

A ticket to play the Mega Millions lottery costs $1. Players may pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers - five different numbers from 1 to 75 and one number from 1 to 15 - or select Easy Pick. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.

What if you win the jackpot?
You can take the annuity option: The Mega Millions annuity is paid out as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments. Each payment is 5 percent larger than the previous one, to keep up with cost of living, the lottery notes.

Most states (including Virginia) offer a "Megaplier" feature to increase non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times; it costs an additional $1 per play.

If you're a winner, do you have to pay taxes are that jackpot? All prizes are subject to income taxes. The lottery must withhold federal and state taxes from each prize over $5,000 - 25 percent for federal taxes and 4 percent for state taxes. For all prizes over $600, the Lottery will issue a federal form W2-G to the winner.

PHOTO: Mega Millions logo