DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Mega Millions lottery game jackpot grew to nearly $ 1 billion before Friday night’s draw after more than four months without a winner, thanks to bad luck, bad odds and reduced game partially attributed to the pandemic coronavirus.
It is only the third time that a lottery jackpot has grown so much, but much has changed since the last time such a big jackpot was in play in 2018. The chances of winning a jackpot remain the same – incredibly small – but for a variety of reasons why fewer people are playing Mega Millions or Powerball, the two lottery games offered in most parts of the country.
And even with the huge Mega Millions prize pool and a $ 731.1 million Powerball jackpot won on Wednesday for a single ticket sold in Maryland increased sales of the games, Maryland lottery director Gordon Medenica noted: “We are not yet out of danger.”
Medenica acknowledged that sales fell sharply before the pandemic and plunged further in the spring and summer.
After a peak in October 2018, Medenica said sales of major lottery games fell by about 50%, which led to a conversation among lottery officials about jackpot fatigue. Sales of Mega Millions and Powerball continued to drop after the virus hit other lottery games, but while scratch cards and other instant games rebounded strongly at the end of the year, domestic game sales remained moribund.
In response to the drop in sales, officials updated national games to reduce the initial jackpots from $ 40 million to $ 20 million and changed the rules on guaranteed minimum raises between draws. The moves made fiscal sense, but caused the jackpots to grow more slowly, further reducing sales, as demonstrated by the record 37 draws without a winner it took to reach the current Mega Millions jackpot, which is still much smaller than the records of all time.
“That’s why it takes so many launches to reach a high jackpot level,” said Medenica.
What hasn’t changed are the odds.
By definition, Mega Millions and Powerball are relatively generous in awarding small dollar prizes and lottery employees boast that there is approximately one in 24 chances to win something. But to generate huge jackpots, employees must be absolutely avaricious about paying for jackpots.
It’s hard to imagine how unlikely it is to beat the odds of one in 292.2 million for Powerball or one in 302.5 million for Mega Millions.
To get an idea of his chances, Steven Bleiler, professor of mathematics and statistics at Portland State University, said people should imagine a 12.2 meter wide, 36.6 meter long and 1.5 meter pool. deep length, filled to the brim with M & Ms, of which only one is green. To win, all the player has to do is jump with his eyes blindfolded and walk until he finds that single green candy.
Andrew Swift, a professor of mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, puts it this way: Your chances of catching two oysters and finding a pearl in both are almost twice as likely as winning one of the lottery prizes.
Still, someone always wins after all, and it happened again after the Powerball draw on Wednesday night, when a single ticket was sold at a convenience store in the small community of Lonaconing, Maryland, it reached all six numbers. The winner can take an annuity of $ 716.3 paid in 30 years or a cash prize of $ 546.8 million.
What comes next is not clear. Some states are betting on the growth of online games, but while the 10 states that allow purchases on computers and phone applications are seeing increasing sales, those purchases remain a relatively small percentage of overall revenue.
“The current test has revived the game the way it was designed,” said Medenica. “Whether we will continue to consider making changes or not, it will be seen.”
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