For Fourth Time, Giant Jackpots Simultaneously At $600 Million Or Higher
Powerball and Mega Millions Jackpots Still Climbing
JPEG and EPS images of Iowa playslips and tickets in the Powerball and Mega Millions games, game logos, and images of people buying tickets are available on the Iowa Lottery Logo
and Game Logos pages.
CLIVE, Iowa — For just the fourth time, the Powerball®and Mega Millions®jackpots are simultaneously at $600 million or higher.
Mega Millions faces its next big test in its drawing Friday night. The game's jackpot stands at an estimated $815 million annuity, $385.1 million lump-sum amount, for that drawing. It is the sixth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
The Powerball jackpot stands at an estimated $600 million annuity, $285.9 million lump-sum amount, for its next drawing Saturday night. That amount, while huge, is not yet in the Top 10 list of jackpots in the Powerball game.
The Mega Millions jackpot has been growing for more than three months. It was last won on Dec. 8. The Powerball jackpot has been growing for more than two months, last won on New Year's Day.
The two games' jackpots have simultaneously been at $600 million or more in 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Record Amounts
The world record for a lottery prize remains the Powerball jackpot of $2.04 billion won in November 2022 in California. The largest Mega Millions jackpot to date was a $1.6 billion prize won in August 2023 in Florida.
The Deadline To Buy
Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is 8:59 p.m. on the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won't be in the running for that night's giant prize.
Truth vs. Myth: Do The Odds Get Longer As the Jackpot Grows?
Are the odds of winning tougher when the jackpot is high and more people are buying tickets? The answer: No. That's a myth.
The odds of winning in Powerball and Mega Millions do not change. They are based upon the numbers you can play in the game, not how many tickets have been purchased.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million because that is how many ways the numbers available to play in the game can be combined to make a play. When the winning numbers are selected, they're one of about 302.6 million possibilities.
The same definition applies in Powerball: The odds of winning its jackpot are about 1 in 292.2 million because that is how many ways the numbers available in the game can be combined to make a play.
Play Healthy
As always, the Iowa Lottery reminds everyone that it only takes one ticket to win. Have fun playing, but set a limit and stay within it for how much you'll spend. Playing the lottery is something that should be done just for fun.
The Iowa Lottery keeps these and other "Play Smart, Be Informed" details on its website to help everyone have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works: https://www.ialottery.com/Pages/PlaySmartBeInformed/PlaySmartBeInformed_main.aspx
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