The Largest Mega Millions Jackpots to Date and Other Mega Millions Information

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Tomorrow (July 29, 2022) night’s Mega Millions drawing is estimated at $1.1 billion (update: $1.28 billion), making it the 2nd largest Mega Millions jackpot of all time. The Top 10 Mega Millions jackpots to date are as follows:

  • $1.537 billion - 10/23/18 - Winning ticket in South Carolina. (5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and 05)

  • $1.28 billion - 7/29/22 - And if no one wins it, it will be even higher on 8/2/22.

  • $1.050 billion - 1/22/21 - Winning ticket in Michigan (4, 26, 42, 50, 60 and 24)

  • $656 million - 3/30/12 - Winning tickets in Illinois, Kansas, Maryland (2, 4, 23, 38, 46 and 23)

  • $648 million - 12/17/13 - Winning tickets in California, Georgia (8, 14, 17, 20, 39 and 7)

  • $543 million - 7/24/18 - Winning ticket in California (1, 2, 4, 19, 29 and 20)

  • $536 million - 7/8/16 - Winning ticket in Indiana (8, 19, 20, 55, 73 and 5)

  • $533 million - 3/30/18 - Winning ticket in New Jersey (11, 28, 31, 46, 59 and 1)

  • $522 million - 6/7/19 - Winning ticket in California (17, 19, 27, 40, 68 and 2)

  • $516 million - 5/21/21 - Winning ticket in Pennsylvania (6, 9, 17, 18, 48 and 8)

Mega Millions is sold in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The five states that do not participate are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.

Locally, Kristine Wellerstein won a $426 million ($292.9 million cash) Mega Millions drawing with a ticket purchased in Woodland Hills on 1/28/22.

On 7/16/10, Zahra Vasseghi of Agoura Hills split a $64 million Mega Millions jackpot with a co-worker. Read about her story at nspyr.com/thevasseghifamilystory/index.html (you won’t regret it).

In Mega Millions, you pick five different numbers ranging from 1 to 70 and one number (the gold Mega Ball) from 1 to 25. The jackpot is hitting all 6 numbers, which is a 1 in 302,575,350 chance. You have a 1 in 37 chance of hitting just the Mega Ball, worth a $2 return of your money.

If you win the Mega Millions jackpot, you can either take one up-front payment that is equal to all the cash in the jackpot price pool (which in tomorrow’s case is $648.2 million vs the estimated $1.1 billion full jackpot) or you can take the annuity option.

The annuity option is not the entire amount divided by 30 years. It starts out at about 1.5% of the total jackpot and increases each year by 5%. So for example, if you win the $1.1 billion jackpot, in the annuity option, you would receive about $16.5 million immediately, followed by $17.3 million in year 2, $18.2 million in year 3, $19.1 million in year 4, and so on.

Good luck! www.megamillions.com

California Lottery "Lucky Retailers" in Ventura County and Surrounding Areas

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The California Lottery was created by ballot measure Proposition 37, approved by 58% of voters on November 6, 1984. Current law (Assembly Bill 142, passed in 2010), limits administrative expenses of the Lottery to 13% of sales, with 87% of sales going back in the form of prized and contributions to education.

Since inception in 1985 through the California Lottery's most currently issued financial report as of June 30, 2015, the Lottery has sold $85.1 billion, contributed close to $29.4 billion to schools, paid $45.9 billion to Lottery winners and another $5.6 million as compensation to retailers.

What happens if you win a big Lottery prize? Your name is public record, as is the name and location of the retailer that sold you the winning ticket, the date you won and of course, the amount. For most Lottery draw games, you have 180 days to claim your prize; however, if you win the Powerball or Mega Millions, you have a year to claim your prize. You will receive your first (or in most cases, only) check with your prize winnings six to eight weeks from claiming your prize.

So how do you win "a big one?" I wish I had the answer. One idea to ponder is to pursue purchasing tickets at retailers that seem to have the winning touch.

The Lottery has a "Lucky Retailers" database that shows, of its 22,000 retail locations, over 4,000 retailers considered "lucky." Lucky is defined as, within the last calendar year, either 1) sold at least one winning ticket of $100,000 or more; 2) paid out an average of 400 or more winning tickets per week or 3) paid out an average of $4,000 or more of winning tickets each week. You can access this searchable list at https://www.calottery.com/Where-To-Play and search for “only Lucky Retailers.”

What most interests me is retailers in Ventura County that meet parameter #1; selling at least one $100,000+ ticket over the previous calendar year. So let's take a look at which local retailers meet that parameter as of late November 2016. It is actually quite a short list!

  • Hi-Time Liquor, 140 W. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks

  • 7-Eleven, 609 Rancho Conejo Blvd, Thousand Oaks

  • Mobil, 855 N. Wendy Drive, Newbury Park

  • 7-Eleven, 1840 Cochran Street, Simi Valley

  • Simi Valley Smoke Shop, 2902 Cochran Street, Simi Valley

  • 76 Station, 2605 Stearns Street, Simi Valley

  • Shell Station, 1604 Ventura Boulevard, Camarillo

  • Log Cabin Liquor, 2457 Alameda Avenue, Ventura

  • Pat Holden Liquor, 860 South A Street, Oxnard

  • Goode's Liquor, 1271 Saviers Road, Oxnard

  • 7-Eleven, 2201 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard

  • Superior Grocers, 2401 Saviers Road, Oxnard

That's it! Pretty short list!

Prior to the "Lucky Retailers" program, here are Ventura County area retail locations that sold at least two winning tickets of $1 MILLION or more from 1985 to 2013:

  • Allan's Market Wine & Lotto, 2521 N. Ventura Road, Port Hueneme (This is the only retail location in the entire state of California during this time frame that sold SIX winning $1 million or more Lottery tickets!)

  • 7-Eleven, 2201 E. Channel Islands Blvd, Oxnard (3 winning tickets)

And there you have it! Learn more about the California Lottery at www.calottery.com.

POWERBALL® Lottery Coming to California Beginning April 8, 2013

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The California Lottery Commission voted on November 29, 2012 to adopt the multi-state mega-jackpot lottery game, POWERBALL. POWERBALL sales will begin in California on April 8, 2013 and the first draw will take place on April 10th.

This vote came the day after POWERBALL's largest jackpot ever, $587.5 million, won by two players (one from Missouri and the other in Arizona).

POWERBALL is expected to add anywhere between $50 to $100 million in additional dollars to supplement public education funding in California.

The $2 POWERBALL game is played much like the $1 MEGA Millions®. Players choose five numbers from 1 to 59 and one red POWERBALL number from 1 to 35. Players can choose their own numbers or opt for a Quick Pick. Draws are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 7:59 p.m. PST.

Unlike MEGA Millions and SuperLotto Plus®, POWERBALL’s pool closure occurs promptly at 7 p.m. PST each draw day. Besides the jackpot, there are eight additional ways to win prizes. The amounts vary due to the State’s pari-mutuel rules. The POWERBALL draws take place in Tallahassee, Florida.

The POWERBALL jackpot begins at $40 million and increases by at least $10 million every roll. In comparision, the MEGA Millions jackpot starts at $12 million.

The odds of winning the POWERBALL jackpot are 1 in 176 million and about 1 in 32 of winning any prize. In comparison, the odds of winning the MEGA Millions jackpot is also 1 in 176 million and about 1 in 40 of winning any prize in the semi-weekly drawing.  So basically the odds are very similar. The main difference is the price of the tickets; $1 for MEGA Millions vs $2 for POWERBALL.

CLICK HERE for information about other CA Lottery games.

The mission of the California Lottery is to provide supplemental funding to California schools while simultaneously supporting local communities. More than 94 cents of every dollar spent by our players goes back to local communities in the form of contributions to public schools and colleges, prizes and retail compensation. Since 2000, Lottery players have contributed $1 billion to public schools each year, and, since we began in 1985, Lottery players have contributed a total of more than $24 billion to education. The California Lottery urges its customers to play responsibly and within their budgets. If you feel you have a gambling problem, or know someone who does, you can get help at 1-800-GAMBLER.

Visit www.calottery.com for more information.

Who Wants to Be a Half Billionaire!? A Review of Historical Mega Millions Numbers

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BREAKING NEWS UPDATE 3/30/12: The estimate jackpot for tonight's drawing has skyrocketed to $640 MILLION or a $462 MILLION cash payout! WOAH!

As pretty much everyone knows at this point, tomorrow's Mega Millions jackpot is the largest jackpot in world history. At $540 million, a single winning ticket will make the holder of that ticket a half billionaire, on paper at least. If they took the estimated cash payment of $390 million and paid the roughly 35% in Federal taxes (California and local taxes are don't apply), they, or I should say, I, will have roughly $253 million in cash to play around with. Heck, that's enough money to run for President these days!

I have quite a terrible track record with my Mega Millions tickets. I've never won even a measly $2 Mega number using my strategy of a combination of Quick Picks, birthdates, "lucky" numbers, my IQ, golf score, 5K time, etc. So tonight, given the unprecedented size of tomorrow night's drawing, I took it upon myself to do a statistical analysis of previous winning draws.

The CALottery website provides historical winning Mega Millions numbers going back to June 24, 2005, representing 706 previous drawings. I took that data and populated an Excel spreadsheet. Remember there are 5 winning numbers in each drawing ranging from 1 to 56, and 1 winning Mega number ranging from 1 to 46. Basically you have a 1 in 176 million chance of winning, no matter what numbers you pick. But I thought, maybe it would be smarter of me to take a look at the winners that won and didn't win most frequently. So I did.

The results of this exercise are as follows:

Number 48 is a winning number standout, having been selected 83 times, or 11.8%, of the last 706 Mega Millons draws. That is 9 times more than the next two lucky numbers, 36 and 53, which were both selected 74 times during that same period. These were closely followed by 12 and 51 (72 wins), 27, 31 and 52 (71 wins) and 14 (70 wins). Noticeably absent from this top nine list are single-digit numbers. Well, 2 had 69 wins and 4, 5 and 9 had 68 wins, so they aren't too far behind. But bottom line here is, perhaps the number 48 should be closely considered.

The least frequently picked winning numbers were 41 (48 wins), 49 (quite coincidentally 49 wins), followed by 47 (50 wins), 37 (51 wins) and 55, 34 and 6 (52 wins). I do find it interesting that 47 and 49, both perennial losers, sandwich 48, the biggest winner.

On the Mega number side, the clear winner, with 25 wins in the last 706 draws, is number 36. Good ole #36 was followed by 9 (6 wins) and 7 and 35 (20 wins). If you truly want to win something, anything, in the Mega Millions, perhaps your best bet is to pick 36 for your Mega number each time, as statistically it hits around every 28 draws. Hitting the Mega with no other winning numbers gets you a whopping $2. Yippee!

The least frequently winning Mega numbers were 28 (a lousy 6 wins in 706 draws), 32 (10 wins) and 46, 14 and 1 (11 wins).

Now just you watch...all the losing numbers above will hit tomorrow. That always happens. But as statisticians say, each draw is independent of the others and thus the odds of choosing the winning numbers technically DO NOT CHANGE from draw to draw. Thus, while you may or may not find interest in this statistical information, I'd advise you rely upon it solely for its amusement value.

Shown below is the winning number information for all numbers sorted by most to least wins over the last 706 Mega Millions draws. Good luck to all and make sure to CONTACT ME if you win THE BIG ONE tomorrow!!

Winning Numbers

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California State Lottery History, Game Information and Other Tidbits

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As I sit here tonight tossing out yet another Mega Millions ticket with losing numbers, my mind wanders and I start thinking about just what this California State Lottery is, its history, who benefits and more. So for those of you looking for information about the Lottery, read on!

Background

The Lottery was created by a 1984 California ballot initiative approved by 58% of the voters. Ticket sales began on October 3, 1985, with the first Scratchers® ticket game “California Jackpot.”

Draw Game sales began on October 14, 1986, with Lotto 6/49®. Daily draw games were introduced in March 1990. The Lottery currently offers seven draw games. Players have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes, except for the Mega Millions jackpot prize which is one year. Retailers pay prizes up to $599 while prizes over $599 are paid directly by the Lottery.

By law, the Lottery is required to return not less than 87% of revenues to the public in the form of prizes and education contributions, and must spend no more than 13% of revenues on operating expenses.

The Games

Scratchers® - Instant ticket games that are played by scratching the latex covering off a play area and learning “instantly” whether the ticket is a winner. (My kids love these.)

SuperLOTTO Plus® – Players select five numbers from 1 to 47 and one mega number from 1 to 27. There are nine prize categories. To win the jackpot, players must match all five lotto numbers plus the mega number. Jackpot prizes start at $7 million and have reached more than $190 million. Winning numbers are drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 7:57 p.m. PST.

MEGA Millions® – Players select five lotto numbers from 1 to 56 and one mega number from 1 to 46. There are nine prize categories. To win the jackpot, match all five lotto numbers plus the mega number. Jackpot prizes start at $12 million and have reached as high as $390 million. Winning numbers are drawn in Atlanta, Georgia every Tuesday and Friday at 8:00 p.m. PST (you can buy tickets until 7:45 p.m.). MEGA Millions is one of the largest multi-state lottery games in North America, currently played in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

Hot Spot® – Players select numbers from 1 to 80 and have a choice of playing ten different “spots” ranging from 1 to 10. There are 58 prize categories in this game. Draws are conducted daily every four minutes with the first draw at 6:04 a.m. and last draw at 2:00 a.m. Twenty winning numbers are selected for each draw.

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