Mega Millions: What are the odds of winning the jackpot and other prizes?
There are numerous other prizes on offer from the recent Mega Millions draw.
Everyone knows the odds are against them when playing the lottery, but someone has to win, right? Let’s see below just how difficult it really is to win.
A huge jackpot is a result of endless rollovers with no winning ticket sold for the twice-weekly draw. The Mega Millions lottery requires players to choose five numbers between 1 and 69, and one additional number, the Mega Ball, from 1 to 26.
To win the top prize players must select all six numbers correctly, at odds of 302,575,350 to 1. For context, the likelihood of an individual getting struck by lightning in any given year is roughly one in a million. Winning the Mega Millions jackpot is 300 times less likely than being hit by lightning.
What other prizes are there to win in the Mega Millions draw?
Entry for the Mega Millions lottery begins at $2 per ticket and participants can still take home some serious money even if they miss out on the full six numbers. Here’s a full list of the ways to win and the odds of winning…
- Five balls and the Mega Ball – Jackpot, 1 in 302,575,350
- Five balls - $1,000,000, 1 in 12,607,306
- Four balls and the Mega Ball - $10,000, 1 in 931,001
- Four balls - $500, 1 in 38,792
- Three balls and the Mega Ball – $200, 1 in 14,547
- Three balls - $10, 1 in 606
- Two balls and the Mega Ball - $10, 1 in 693
- One ball and the Mega Ball - $4, 1 in 89
- The Mega Ball - $2, 1 in 37
With nine different ways to win the likelihood of winning something from the Mega Millions lottery is actually fairly high. The overall chance of winning any prize is 1 in 24.
The size of the jackpot varies between draws, but each new jackpot always begins at $20 million. If no one claims a win for that draw, then the $20 million jackpot is ‘rolled over’ and increased for the next draw. As was the case with the recent billion-dollar draw, the jackpot can become huge if there is a run of draws without a winner.