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MegaMillions

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The US MegaMillions is Americas second most popular lottery after the PowerBall and while it cannot quite compete with the jackpots being offered there, the ones it can provide are certainly not to be sniffed at.

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Additionally, while the jackpots might not be quite as big on average, where MegaMillions stands out against the PowerBall Lottery is that it offers lower odds of winning the jackpot.

Another advantage the MegaMillions Lottery has over the PowerBall Lottery is that it is cheaper at $1 per ticket and a maximum of $2 per ticket if players have taken advantage of the Megaplier feature. This is in comparison to the $2 standard cost of the PowerBall and the option of paying $1 more for the PowerPlay feature.

Furthermore, did you know that you can actually take part in the MegaMillions Lottery even if you are not in the USA or from one of the member states that takes part in the lottery?   

Anyone looking for a lottery that offers good value, a better chance of winning the jackpot than many others and some mouth-watering prizes, would do a lot worse than taking a look at the MegaMillions Lottery.

Read on to find more about the MegaMillions and how you can play it from your own home no matter where you are.

Some History of the MegaMillions Lottery

MegaMillions was originally called the ‘The Big Game’ when it was initially launched back in 1996 and that is how it stayed until 2002. That year in May is when the name was changed to MegaMillions and it has been known as that ever since.

The MegaMillions Lottery is one of the biggest and most popular lotteries in the USA and there are currently 46 different state lotteries that have combined to create this national (and now international) lottery for players to enjoy.

Having awarded many massive jackpots throughout its history, the MegaMillions can actually lay claim to paying out one of the largest of all time. A $656 million jackpot was registered back in March of 2012 that to this day is still one of the biggest on record the world over.

The MegaMillions has two draws per week and while these are usually done via a television studio, if the jackpot ever exceeds $200 million, they are hosted in Times Square in New York City to some serious fanfare.

This lottery is so popular that each and every draw attracts millions of people from both the USA and from all quarters of the globe. Each of them looking to be the very next winner of

How to Play the MegaMillions Lottery

If you have played any form of lottery before, you will no doubt find some big similarities when playing the MegaMillions Lottery. You essentially are tasked with choosing a number of different numbers from a set range and hoping that these numbers are matched when the lottery draws the numbers from the tombolas.

In the case of the MegaMillions lottery, you have to choose five main numbers from between 1 and 75. You then also have to select one Mega Ball number from between 1 and 15.

Each ticket will cost you $1 but all player have the option of paying another $1 in order to have a multiplier attached to all of the non-jackpot winning fixed payouts. That feature is called the Megaplier and it will give a minimum multiplier of x2 on all non-jackpot winning prizes and the chance of x3, x4 or x5 as well.

The Megaplier is drawn via a separate pool of fifteen balls. The odds and the number of balls representing the multiplier are as follows:

  • There are six balls for the 5x multiplier with odds of 1:2.5
  • There are three balls for the 4x multiplier with odds of 1:5
  • There are four balls for the 3x multiplier with odds of 1:3.75
  • There are two balls for the 2x multiplier with odds of 1:7.5

What you can win from the MegaMillions Lottery will be explained in more detail and the odds of winning each prize will be explained as well.

When a player has made their choice of which numbers to bet on and decided whether they wish to use the Megaplier, they then just have to wait until the date and time of their draw.

These take place twice a week on Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 pm EST. When there are no jackpot winners, that jackpot will roll over to the next drawing.

Any player that wins a prize on the MegaMillions will have either 6 months or a year to claim their prize. This will depend on the member state that the ticket was purchased from, so be sure to find out how long you might have to claim your big winnings.

Who would want to wait anyway? Get down there and claim your millions straight away if you have been lucky enough to win the jackpot.

How Much Can Be Won?

The amount that can be won can actually be anything above $15 million in reality when it comes to the jackpot of the MegaMillions Lottery jackpot. There literally is no upper limit as he could just keep rolling on for months or years and this is usually how the massive jackpots are created.

Whenever there is no winner or winners of the jackpot, that jackpot amount gets rolled over and is added to the next lottery draw.

When this happens it creates a snowball effect as much more tickets are sold each time due to the size of the jackpot. This ensures that the jackpot amount each time increases significantly and therefore monster jackpots can be created much like the $656 million jackpot created in 2012.

Jackpot rollovers are actually fairly common too, which just leads to regular massive jackpots being created. If you are an opportunistic lottery player that only plays above a certain level of jackpot, you might want to keep an eye on this one as it does get big fairly regularly.

With regards to all of the other non-jackpot prizes, these are all fixed and will not change no matter the size of the jackpot of the MegaMillions lottery.

There is also the Megaplier feature that players can take advantage of that will for an extra charge of $1, allow them to have a minimum multiplier of 2x for all of the non-jackpot prizes and the possible chance of either 3x, 4x or 5x instead.

Here are all of the prizes that can be won from the MegaMillions Jackpot:

  • Matching just the Mega Ball will win you $1 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching one main number and the Mega Ball will win you $2 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching two main numbers and the Mega Ball will win you $5 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching three main numbers will win you $5 (can be multiplied).    
  • Matching three main numbers and the Mega Ball will win you $50 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching four numbers will win you $500 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching four main numbers and the Mega Ball will win you $5,000 (can be multiplied).
  • Matching five main numbers will win you $1 million (can be multiplied).
  • Matching five main numbers and the Mega Ball will win you the jackpot. 

The jackpot is the only prize that cannot be multiplied using the Megaplier feature but when you consider the money that is on offer for the winners, this is more than understandable.

Previous Notable Jackpots

There have been many huge jackpots won over the years by players of the MegaMillions Lottery but there are two that really stick in the mind.

The first of these was a $656 million jackpot that was shared by three lucky ticket holders from Illinois, Kansas and Maryland respectively on the 30th of March 2012.

They each opted to choose the lump cash option rather than annual payments for the next 30 years and therefore shared $$474 million between them which worked out at $158 million each.

Other big wins include two winners claiming an equal share of a jackpot worth $648 million on the 17th of December 2013.

Two lucky winners from Idaho and Washington also shared a huge jackpot of $$380 million after their numbers came up on the 4th of January 2011.

There has been a whole host more lucky winners over the years that have banked some serious cash from the MegaMillions Lottery. None quite as large as those but with a minimum of $10 million guaranteed for the jackpot, you can just imagine how large these can be.   

What are the Chances of Winning?

You might think that winning any kind of prize in any lottery is quite slim but they are not as slim as you might have imagined. Sure, winning the jackpot has massive odds no matter which lottery you play but the overall odds of winning a prize on the MegaMillions Lottery is actually just 1 in 14.7.

This means that one out of about every 15 players will win something when playing the MegaMillions Lottery.

  • Players have a 1 in 258,890,850 chance of winning the MegaMillions jackpot.
  • Players have a 1 in 18,492,204 chance of winning the second-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 739,688 chance of winning the third-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 52,835 chance of winning the fourth-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 10,720 chance of winning the fifth-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 766 chance of winning the sixth-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 473 chance of winning the seventh-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 56 chance of winning the eighth-tier prize.
  • Players have a 1 in 21 chance of winning the ninth-tier prize.

Of course, like any national lottery, the odds are very big on winning the jackpot but there always is a winner eventually and there is nothing to say that it cannot be somebody reading this review right now.

Who Can Play the MegaMillions Lottery?

In times gone by, the only people that could play the US MegaMillions Lottery were citizens of America that had bought their tickets from one of the member states of the lottery.

Nowadays though, people from all over the world have the ability to play the MegaMillions Lottery and just about any other lottery in fact by purchasing their tickets online. There are a number of online retailers that sell these tickets making it possible for anyone the world over to have a chance at winning some life-changing sums of money.

The only regulations that will apply are that you are legally above the age of what the member state requires for gambling. This can be 18, 19 or 21 depending on which state it is, so be sure to first discover that information before paying for a lottery ticket.

Checking the results of each draw is easy as it can be done online. All you have to do is remember the time and date of the draw for the MegaMillions Lottery and you will be able to find the results with ease.

How is the Jackpot Paid?

In a similar way to the PowerBall Lottery, the MegaMillions Lottery gives players two different options when it comes to claiming their winnings.

They can either accept a lump sum cash payment that is lower than the full jackpot amount or they can opt to have their full winnings paid out through a single payment each year for the next thirty years.

Admittedly, most opt for the cash payment as they are a little uneasy about whether the lotteries will exist or whether they will actually get their money. A lump sum of cash even with a sizable chunk taken out of it is still an awful lot of money to be able to play with.

Hopefully, you have learned everything you need to know about the MegaMillions and we certainly wish you all the best of luck if you decide to take part in any future draws.