Mega Millions Review

Mega Millions Online

Mega Millions is an American-based lottery game that is played across multiple states and jurisdictions. Initially, when the game was started in August, 1996, it was under the name The Big Game; Mega Millions’ official first draw was in May, 2003.

The minimum jackpot to win is $15 million, and the prize amount for all secondary wins are fixed and not dependant on the jackpot size whatsoever.

How Does Mega Millions Work it Work?

When you fill in your ticket, you have to choose five numbers from one to 75 (white balls) plus one number from one to 15 (gold balls); this is known as the Mega Ball. You stand a chance to win twice a week – Tuesdays and Fridays – at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time; the draws are held at WSB-TC studios in Atlanta.

Mega Millions also offers players a chance to increase any non-jackpot winnings with a feature called the Megaplier (much like Powerball’s Power Play). For an additional $1, you get the opportunity to multiply your winnings by two, three, four or five times. The Megaplier is drawn by the Texas Lottery via a random number generator (RNG).

Payouts and Odds

Winning the big $15 million jackpot presents you with two ways in which to receive the money (minus tax deductions, of course): all the cash in one go, or 30 annual graduated instalments. For the second option, the money will be paid out over the course of 29 years – the first payment is paid out immediately after claiming the prize, and the amount increases by 5% each year. The cash payout is the most popular option.

The breakdown of winnings and their respective odds are as follows:

MB only = $1 (1:21)
1 + MB = $2 (1:56)
2 + MB = $5 (1:437)
3 only = $5 (1:766)
3 + MB = $50 (1:10,720)
4 only = $500 (1:52,835)
4 + MB = $5,000 (1:739,688)
5 only = $1,000,000 (1:18,492,204)
5 + MB = jackpot (1: 258,890,850)

The record highest Mega Millions win was in March 2012 for a jackpot prize of $656 million – the biggest jackpot ever in the world. There were three lucky winning ticket holders, all of whom opted for the lump sum cash option, which gave them $158 million each.

The biggest prize for a single Mega Millions winner was in March, 2011 for a jackpot size of $319 million which resulted in a cash prize of $202.9 million after tax deductions.