

For an extra fee, opting into the Megaplier means that non-jackpot winnings can be multiplied by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times, depending on the multiplier number drawn. Megaplier is an option that players in the USA can utilise when purchasing their tickets. Combined, the six numbers drawn are the Mega Millions winning numbers.ĭraws take place every Tuesday and Friday night at 11:00pm Eastern Time (around 5:00am on Wednesday and Saturday morning under South African time). A second machine then draws a Mega Ball number from 1-25. The first machine draws five main balls from a pool of 1-70. Thanks to the vast number of players in each draw, the jackpots can regularly and quickly climb into the hundreds of millions – something that many lotteries around the world are not able to offer. Mega Millions is a traditional draw-based lottery game that is offered in 47 jurisdictions across the USA. *Estimated rand value based on exchange rates, so this may vary between draws. The table below shows the prizes you can win by playing or betting on Mega Millions from South Africa, with the best odds first. In total, however, there nine prize divisions in Mega Millions, which means there are plenty of chances to win and different odds of winning each. The odds of doing so are around 1 in 302.5 million.
Number of quickpick mega millions winners plus#
To win the jackpot, you need to match all five main balls plus the Mega Ball. And no matter what, you're sure to face a sizable tax hit from any lottery winnings over $5,000, with the minimum federal tax charge on lottery winnings being 24%, which is withheld by the IRS before the money even makes it to a winner's bank account, along with state taxes that vary by state.Whether you’re playing Mega Millions in one of the 47 jurisdictions in the USA in which it is sold, or whether you’re betting online internationally, the way that you win a prize is essentially the same. Meanwhile, if you are lucky enough to win the lottery, financial experts typically advise you to take the lump sum option (and invest your winnings in long-term stocks), rather than taking multi-year annuity payments. That's a different approach, and it's just like any other gambling: You should only be willing to spend what you can afford to lose." "That said, it can be fun to play the lottery and imagine you win. "My advice is don't play the lottery and expect to win," Lefton added. In other words, investing more money in a higher number of tickets might not always be worth the expense, Lefton previously told CNBC Make It. Lew Lefton, a faculty member at Georgia Tech's School of Mathematics. Buying five tickets would give you a five in 302 million chance of winning the current $405 million Mega Millions jackpot, which are better odds than just buying one ticket, but you're still far more likely to be struck by lightning.Īlso, buying more tickets means that "the investment you make by playing multiple games also goes up and the payouts in a real lottery may vary," according to Dr.


That also means that regularly buying lottery tickets - whether it's every day or every week - does not improve your odds of winning, because the odds of all lotteries are independent.Īnd even buying a few extra for a particular drawing doesn't improve your chances all that much, especially when the odds are roughly 300 million to one (as is the case with the current huge Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots). "In other words, having previously won the lottery does not improve or make less likely the chance of winning the lottery in the future." "If someone already wins the lottery, then the chance that the person wins the lottery a second time will be exactly the same as the probability they win the lottery if they had not previously won the lottery before," Glickman said. (Just ask multiple winners like Peggy Dodson, who in 2019 won a $1 million jackpot with a "Max-a-Million" scratch-off lottery ticket from the same Pennsylvania convenience store where she had purchased another scratch-off ticket that was a $100,000 winner only two years earlier.) In fact, even if you've won the lottery once before, you still have the same odds of winning the next drawing as anyone else who buys a ticket.
