The drawing for what could be the single biggest lottery payout the world has ever seen is finally here.The numbers drawn Friday night in Atlanta were 2-4-23-38-46, Mega Ball 23.
A
$640 million jackpot is up for grabs. Taken as a lump sum, it would
amount to $462 million — or about $347 million after federal tax
withholding. It will be a couple of hours for details on possible
winners come out.
Before Friday night's drawing, lottery
ticket lines swelled as the record Mega Millions jackpot grew to $640
million, thanks greatly to players who opened their wallets despite
long odds of success. Across the country, Americans plunked down an
estimated $1.5 billion on the longest of long shots: an infinitesimally
small chance to win what could end up being the single biggest lottery
payout the world has ever seen.
A cafe worker in Arizona
reported selling $2,600 worth of tickets to one buyer, while a retired
soldier in Wisconsin doubled his regular weekly ticket spending to $55.
But each would have to put down millions more to guarantee winning what
could be the biggest single lotto payout in the world.
"I
feel like a fool throwing that kind of money away," said Jesse Carter,
who spent the $55 and donated the last two tickets he bought at a
Milwaukee store Friday to a charity. "But it's a chance you take in
life, with anything you do."
Laura Horsley, who does communications and marketing for a trade
association, bought $20 worth of Quick Pick tickets at a downtown
Washington, D.C., liquor store Friday. But Horsley, who said she won't
buy a lottery ticket unless the jackpot tops $100 million, remained
realistic.
"I don't actually think I'm going to win, and
I don't believe in superstitions or numbers or anything like that," she
said. "I just figured it's right around the corner. I'd be crazy not at
least to give it a shot."
Thousands of players -- who
converged on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C.,
where Mega Millions tickets are sold -- agreed.
Kelly
Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery Commission, said that as of
Tuesday, nationwide sales for the Mega Millions drawing totaled more
than $839 million. Officials projected an additional $618.5 million in
sales ahead of Friday's drawing, however, for a projected total sales
figure of more than $1.46 billion.
"This is unprecedented," Cripe said Friday by e-mail.
Some
Indiana players managed to get freebies, as Hoosier Lottery officials
gave away one free Mega Millions ticket to each of the first 540
players at several outlets around the state Friday -- a plan announced
before the jackpot grew by $100 million.
In
Indianapolis, college student Chris Stewart said he showed up at the
lottery's headquarters at 6:30 a.m. to be first in a line.
"I've
never seen a jackpot like this before," said Stewart, who bought five
additional tickets. "If I won -- I mean wow! I just don't know what I'd
do. I'd really have to think what I could do with it."
The
lines were out the door at Rosie's Den cafe in the rural northwestern
Arizona community of White Hills, 72 miles southeast of Las Vegas and
one of the closest points to Nevada -- which doesn't offer Mega
Millions -- for buyers to get in the game.
Rosie's worker Christine Millim said it's been nonstop for four days.
"In one step I sold $2,600 worth so, that was one person," she said.
Mike
Catalano, chairman of the mathematics department at Dakota Wesleyan
University in Mitchell, S.D., concedes the math is clear: The more
tickets you buy, the better chances you have of winning. Better
long-shot chances, of course.
"You are about 50 times as
likely to get struck by lightning as to win the lottery, based on the
90 people a year getting struck by lightning," Catalano said. "Of
course, if you buy 50 tickets, you've equalized your chances of winning
the jackpot with getting struck by lightning."
Based on
other U.S. averages, you're about 8,000 times more likely to be
murdered than to win the lottery, and about 20,000 times more likely to
die in a car crash than hit the lucky numbers, Catalano said.
For David Kramer, a lawyer in Lincoln, Neb., buying his Mega Millions ticket wasn't about "the realistic opportunity to win."
"It's
the fact that for three days, the daydreaming time about what I would
do if I won is great entertainment and, frankly, a very nice release
from a normal day," he said.
The revenue from that jackpot pie is divided in three ways: About 60
percent goes to prize winners; 15 percent to retailers, marketing and
operations; and 25 percent, or about $14 billion, goes back to the
states for government services.
And while states earmark
that money for education programs, state lotteries covered only a
fraction of state education spending,"
Everett Eahmer, 80, of St. Paul, Minn., said he's been playing the lottery "since the beginning."
"If
I win, the first thing I'm going to do is buy a (Tim) Tebow football
shirt, and I'm going to do the Tebow pose," said Eahmer, who bought
five tickets Thursday. "I'm with him in honoring a higher power."
Lottery
officials are happy to have Friday's record Mega Millions jackpot
fueling ticket sales, but even they caution against overspending.
"When
people ask me, I just tell them that the odds of a lottery game make it
a game of fate," said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the
Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association that oversees the
Mega Millions, Powerball and other lotteries. "Just buy a ticket, sit
back and see if fate points a finger at you for that day."
And what happens if you win? CBS MoneyWatch's Jill Schlesinger has some recommendations
-- among them 1) Read the rules on the back of the lottery ticket and
the lottery web site; 2) Assemble a team that would include
interviewing attorneys and financial advisors; and 3) Allow yourself to
spend a little money, but don't go crazy.