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Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot of $1.55 billion is a $2 gamble

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 8, 2023

By Andrea Brown

A customer shows her purchased Powerball and Mega Millions tickets at a convenience store in Northbrook, Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. The Powerball jackpot is up to $410 million. The drawing for that is Wednesday night. The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday's lottery drawing has jumped to $490 million and it potentially makes the 8th largest in the game's history. At $857 million, this is the highest combined jackpot total for the multi-state jackpot games in more than two years. Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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A customer shows her purchased Powerball and Mega Millions tickets at a convenience store in Northbrook, Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. The Powerball jackpot is up to $410 million. The drawing for that is Wednesday night. The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday's lottery drawing has jumped to $490 million and it potentially makes the 8th largest in the game's history. At $857 million, this is the highest combined jackpot total for the multi-state jackpot games in more than two years. Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A customer shows her purchased Powerball and Mega Millions tickets at a convenience store in Northbrook, Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

EVERETT — A Mega Millions jackpot estimated at $1.55 billion is inspiring many people to part with $2 for a chance at more money than they’ll know what to do with.

So what if the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million?

The lump sum is $757.2 million, before taxes. Or get every penny, minus taxes, by taking the annuity option of 30 annual payments.

The jackpot in Tuesday’s drawing might be a Mega Millions record.

The drawing “will flirt with the game’s record jackpot of $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on October 23, 2018. However, we won’t know for sure until we get closer to Tuesday’s drawing; at this level, jackpots are hard to predict with complete accuracy,” according to a Mega Millions news release.

Ticket sales tend to pick up in the hours before big drawings. The Mega Millions drawing is at 8 p.m. (Pacific Time) Tuesday.

February’s $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot is the largest in U.S. lottery history. Second largest is a $1.586 billion Powerball grand prize in January 2016.

If nobody hits Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot, odds are it will soar to the second-largest windfall in lottery history in Friday’s drawing. You still won’t be in the top 10 richest people in Washington state.

Ticket sales benefit state residents. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each Mega Millions ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold.

Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.

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