$785M Mega Millions prize is 6th largest in US history
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An estimated $785 million Mega Millions jackpot set for Tuesday night will give lottery players a chance to start the new year with a lucrative bang.
The big prize is the sixth-largest jackpot in U.S. history and has grown so large because no one has matched all six of the game’s numbers for more than two months.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Mega Millions lottery playing slips are shown at a supermarket kiosk Monday in Surfside, Fla.
There have been 22 straight drawings without a big winner, allowing the prize to roll over and become ever larger.
The jackpot-winning drought isn’t surprising given the miserable odds of one in 302.6 million of winning the top prize.
The $785 million jackpot is for a winner who chooses to be paid through an annuity over 29 years. Nearly all winners opt for a cash payout, which for Tuesday night’s drawing would be an estimated $395 million.
The jackpot is the largest since someone in California won a record $2.04 billion Powerball prize on Nov. 8. There still has not been an announced winner of that jackpot.
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Lotteries have been around for a long time across cultures. From ancient Greece to the Han dynasty, people played the odds to realize an ambitious dream, while on the other end, states looked to profit. In the United States, the popularity of the lottery came with European colonization, according to historian Jonathan D. Cohen in "For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America." Despite Protestant misgivings, the profits generated from lotteries were used to finance civil defense, the construction of churches, and even the founding of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
While lotteries helped fortify a new country, Americans eventually eschewed their use because of widespread concern over misuse and mismanagement. In 1964, New Hampshire ran the first modern state-run lottery. Now, only five states—Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada—don't offer lotteries, while the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands all have lotteries operated by the government.
States use lotteries to raise money for different administrative fees and to fund public services such as education or support for veterans. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, lotteries provide about 1% of state revenue annually. And what do the lucky ticket holders do with their share? Stacker compiled a list of the 15 largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history from news reports and lottery press releases, with details on how winners used the funds if available.
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