SACRAMENTO – California, if you thought Oscar night was big, wait until you take a look at tonight’s MEGA Millions jackpot. If you win tonight’s draw, you won’t just walk away with a shiny trophy, but a jackpot worth $216 million. Tonight’s jackpot should be a particularly lucky one too; it’s the history-making 500th jackpot since MEGA Millions began.
The $216 million MEGA Millions jackpot is currently the largest lottery jackpot in the world. Since California joined MEGA Millions, four MEGA Millions jackpots totaling $472 million have been won by Californians. In November 2005, the largest jackpot ever in the history of California was won when seven lucky players shared a MEGA Millions jackpot worth $315 million! The winner of the $216 million MEGA Millions jackpot would receive annual payments of $8.3 million for the next 26 years (before taxes) or could choose the cash option and receive a lump sum of roughly half the jackpot amount.
Retailers win too! A retailer who sells a single winning $216 million ticket will receive the maximum bonus of $1 million for selling the winning ticket.
MEGA Millions tickets are available at the Lottery’s approximately 19,000 retail locations statewide. The MEGA Millions draw takes place each Tuesday and Friday night at 8:00 p.m. Players may purchase MEGA Millions tickets until 7:45 p.m. on the night of the draw.
Public education receives at least 34 cents of every dollar players spend on Lottery products. The California Lottery contributed a record $1.28 billion to public education in 2005-06 out of historic sales of $3.58 billion, the sixth year in a row the Lottery has provided more than $1 billion in supplemental funding for education. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $18 billion to California schools.