In less than a year, records have been broken in the prizes awarded by the most popular lotteries in the United States, since some of the accumulated bags have exceeded $1,000 million dollars, money that has come to radically change the life of who was the lucky to win it.
This Tuesday, January 10, Mega Millions will again be raffling off one of the historical prizes, not only of said lottery, but in general of this game in the US, since there is an accumulated amount of $1,100 million for whoever hits the combination of balls white plus gold.
Mega Millions has gained a lot of fans in the last week as in July 2022, exactly 6 months ago, some player from Illinois took home $1.4 billion, the third largest lottery prize in US history.
Then came the Powerball, which accumulated $2.04 million after spending almost 3 months without a winner and that someone won 2 months ago in California, without the lucky one appearing to collect it.
How is the Mega Millions jackpot calculated?
There are a couple of factors that the estimated value of the jackpot is based on.
As Mega Millions explains, pool members for this lottery meet on Tuesdays and Fridays (the days the draws are held) to determine the estimated jackpot prizes for the next 2 draws.
The first factor considered is ticket sales. Statewide ticket sales estimates are used to determine the estimated cash value of Mega Millions jackpot prizes. Officials also review the rate on 30-year US Treasury bonds for that day. This is a significant figure due to the annuity option that winners can claim which splits their prize into 29 annual payments that are 5% larger than previously awarded.
Jackpot prizes often end up being bigger after the actual draw than the estimates predicted. Part of this is because 70% of sales are made on the day of the draw, and sales can be affected by external factors such as weather (which could affect Friday’s draw), making it difficult to estimate exact numbers. in advance. Changes in the US Treasury bond rate may also affect the jackpot.
The other factor that increases the value of a prize is that the draw does not have frequent jackpot winners. Once someone hits the jackpot, it resets to a lower value. However, lottery games like Mega Millions are designed to go through multiple draws without a top prize winner. The odds of winning the game’s jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.
It may interest you:
* Mega Millions: The $1,000,000 prize ticket was purchased in New Jersey
* 6 tips given by a lottery expert in case you win the $1.1 billion that is at stake in the Mega Millions
* Mega Millions draw: Until what time can I buy a ticket in each state of the United States