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Last night, the multi-state Mega Millions lottery game produced no top winner for the 31st consecutive drawing, prompting lottery officials to raise the game's jackpot to $1.55 billion — the largest jackpot in the game's 27-year history.
A winner who chooses the cash option would receive a lump-sum $757.2 million — three-quarters of a billion dollars in cash!
It's the stuff that a lottery player's dreams are made of: holding a lottery ticket for an upcoming Mega Millions drawing with the potential to transform your life in every way.
Do you choose the annuity, which has an initial payment of $23.3 million and increases the payment every year until the final payment of $96 million in the 29th year, or do you opt for the lump-sum cash payment of $757.2 million all at once?
You can weight the tax consequences of that choice state-by-state by visiting the Jackpot Analysis page at USA Mega, a website devoted to the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-state lottery games. The feature calculates both the initial withholdings and the final tax burden due at the end of the year, and even can show taxes calculated for different IRS filing statuses.
Someone will get to win that enormous pile of cash Tuesday night at 11:00 pm Eastern Time (8:00 pm Pacific).
Tuesday's $1.55 billion Mega Millions jackpot is the 3rd-largest lottery jackpot of any game in world history, and the $757.2 million lump-sum cash value stands as the 6th-largest ever (see full list below).
The current jackpot run-up started on Apr. 21 as a $20 million grand prize — it has been over 3 months since Mega Millions has had a jackpot winner.
The rush of ticket sales over the next few days may propel the jackpot to an even higher amount before the drawing takes place Tuesday. Lottery Post and USA Mega will update the jackpot tallies displayed if such an increase occurs.
In Friday night's Mega Millions drawing, there was no jackpot winner, but 9 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Louisiana, 1 from Michigan, 1 from Missouri, 1 from Nebraska, 1 from New York, 1 from Oklahoma, 2 from Tennessee, and 1 from Texas.
Two of the second-prize winners — one from Michigan and one from Tennessee — purchased their tickets with the Megaplier option for an extra $1 per play, multiplying their prizes to $2 million because the Megaplier number drawn was 2.
The Megaplier option is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered with the Megaplier is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all lottery prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.
A total of 128 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. Of those tickets, 24 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $20,000, and 20 were sold in California, where the prize awarded this drawing is $10,030.
The Mega Millions winning numbers for Friday, August 4, 2023, were 11, 30, 45, 52, and 56, with Mega Ball number 20. The Megaplier number was 2.
The complete payout information and official drawing video for Friday's drawing can be found at USA Mega's Mega Millions Drawing Detail page, as well as on the Mega Millions Prize Payouts page at Lottery Post.
Following the Friday drawing, the Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate was raised $200 million from its previous amount of $1.35 billion. The cash value was raised by $97.7 million from its previous amount of $659.5 million.
Mega Millions tickets cost $2 each. For an extra $1 per ticket players can purchase the Megaplier option, which multiplies any non-jackpot won by up to 5 times, depending on the Megaplier number drawn that evening.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Tuesdays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time.
Source: Lottery Post
