One lottery ticket sold in New Jersey wins $521 million Mega Millions jackpot

Mar 31, 2018, 9:34 am (97 comments)

Mega Millions

Update: Quotes and information from store workers where the winning ticket was sold

By Todd Northrop

It appears someone in the Garden State will be having a very happy Easter or Passover, as Friday night's Mega Millions drawing produced a single jackpot-winning ticket sold in New Jersey.

The ticket matched all six numbers drawn — 11, 28, 31, 46, and 59, with Mega Ball number 1. The Megaplier was 3.

The winning ticket was sold at the Riverdale Lukoil South, located at 105 Route 23 in Riverdale.

The winner will receive an estimated $521 million, which is the 4th-largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions, and the 10th-largest jackpot ever in US lottery history.

Friday's jackpot was the 18th won during the month of March in the game's 16-year history, and comes six years to the day after a then-record $656 million jackpot was won. (See World's biggest lottery jackpot won by three tickets, Lottery Post, Mar. 31, 2012.)

"We are thrilled that the winning ticket was sold in Morris County," said New Jersey Lottery Acting Executive Director John M. White. "I'm happy to congratulate... the retailer that sold this winning ticket."

"We encourage the winner to sign the back of the ticket, make a copy of both sides and put it in a safe place, and contact Lottery Headquarters at 609-599-5875 to arrange to file a claim for this 'MEGA' jackpot prize," White added.

The winner has one year from the date of the drawing to file a claim.

"It's exciting to think that their lives have been changed," said Nancy Levan, a cashier at the Lukoil where the winning ticket was sold, of the winner.

Levan and her manager, Nash Riad, happily spoke to a swarm of reporters in between transactions with customers on a busy afternoon.

They don't know who the winning ticket was sold to. And they aren't sure how much the store looks to gain from selling the winning ticket.

Riad said he received a call from the lottery office in the early morning.

"They check the address and they told me, 'do you know that you are the store who sold the winning ticket for one person? Be ready. All news will be here.'"

Levan said it was exciting to think that she could've been the one that sold the winning ticket.

"We have a lot of blue collar workers that come in in the mornings so we're hoping it was someone that really needed it," she said. "It would be great for them."

Levan said one of her co-workers called her at home to break the news that one of them sold the winning ticket.

"Just knowing that it's one of our customers. That it stayed in New Jersey, stayed local, is an awesome thing," she said.

Levan said the biggest previous winning at the gas station was a $200,000 scratch-off lottery ticket off a $5 purchase in 2015.

In addition to the lucky jackpot winner, 2 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Ohio and 1 from Texas.

Another 59 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. Of those tickets, 7 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $30,000, and 6 were sold in California, where the prize was worth $16,280 this drawing.

The Megaplier option is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered with the Megaplier is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts.

Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.

With the jackpot have been won last night, the Mega Millions jackpot resets to its starting value of $40 million for the next drawing on Tuesday.

The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Toronto

What's the point of playing if someone else is going to win it

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Congrats to the person that purchased the single lucky ticket up in NJ !!! Great win Thumbs Up

The winner of the 2nd place prize in Texas purchased their ticket at a 7-11 on Bryant St. in Dallas. Yes, it was a QP and it was not me. Star

We did have 6 tickets purchased that had 4/5 numbers with the Mega Ball and 1 of those had the multiplier

Texas Lotto Jackpot tonight:    $19.75 Million/$13.3 Million Cash

 

Good luck to all of us

Think's avatarThink

Really?  Only 2 second prize winners on a top 10 Jackpot???

Well, next stop for the jackpot June 19 - June 26th.

This was my last play on Mega until they change it again and then I will evaluate the game again and see if I will play. 

They probably wont change it for 3 1/2 years so that's about  14 more jackpots.

kennedygrandma's avatarkennedygrandma

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Quote: Originally posted by kennedygrandma on Mar 31, 2018

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

MADDOG10's avatarMADDOG10

I know the Station well. I used to Live in Riverdale, before moving to Florida. 

I wish whomever well on their new found wealth.

paymentplan-man

Quote: Originally posted by Think on Mar 31, 2018

Really?  Only 2 second prize winners on a top 10 Jackpot???

Well, next stop for the jackpot June 19 - June 26th.

This was my last play on Mega until they change it again and then I will evaluate the game again and see if I will play. 

They probably wont change it for 3 1/2 years so that's about  14 more jackpots.

Agreed once my subscription for the MM ends im done playing it for a while. Just sticking to PW 400M and higher so i can limit my losses. God bless all of you and congrats to all who won something

gy65

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

cps10's avatarcps10

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

I found this to be odd as well. Wouldn't the program automatically find where the ticket was found? I know that there are several hundred million combinations and I'm sure most of them were played last night, but even our databases at work that deal with trillions of data points can find something almost instantaneously.

cps10's avatarcps10

"It appears someone in the Garden State will be having a very happy Easter or Passover, as Friday night's Mega Millions drawing produced a single jackpot-winning ticket sold in New Jersey."

 

- or neither LOL

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by kennedygrandma on Mar 31, 2018

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

I Agree! 100% kennedygrandma   Tennessee hasn't had a jackpot winner since the Lottery began, if I'm correct.

paymentplan-man

Quote: Originally posted by ekem6078 on Mar 31, 2018

I Agree! 100% kennedygrandma   Tennessee hasn't had a jackpot winner since the Lottery began, if I'm correct.

Typically the states that win seem to be the ones that play the most collectively which makes alot of sense. Granted this isn't a guarantee since its a game of chance but on average a state that puts in more combinations will in turn yield a more positive outcome when it come to amount of winners. Which is why im taking a lottery break if you will especially from the MM.

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 31, 2018

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

Looks like ILL.  NY.  CA.  WA  &  TX are the States to be to winning it.

Redd55

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

It was New Jersey -- undoubtedly someone got their legs broken.   Jester Laugh

JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 31, 2018

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

Yep, losers in MN and my home state WI.

 

- Participating MM States -

Jackpot Winners Jackpot Losers
California Arizona
Florida Arkansas
Georgia Colorado
Illinois Connecticut
Indiana Delaware
Michigan Idaho
Montana Iowa
New Jersey Kansas
New York Kentucky
Ohio Louisiana
Pennsylvania Maine
Rhode Island Maryland
Texas Massachusetts
Virginia Minnesota
Washington Missouri
· Nebraska
· New Hampshire
· New Mexico
· North Carolina
· North Dakota
· Oklahoma
· Oregon
· South Carolina
· South Dakota
· Tennessee
· Vermont
· Washington, D.C.
· West Virginia
· Wisconsin
· Wyoming
JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

Quote: Originally posted by MADDOG10 on Mar 31, 2018

I know the Station well. I used to Live in Riverdale, before moving to Florida. 

I wish whomever well on their new found wealth.

May have stopped there when I was out there for a 6 week training class in Paramus years ago.

Was staying at the Residence Inn in Parsippany.

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by paymentplan-man on Mar 31, 2018

Typically the states that win seem to be the ones that play the most collectively which makes alot of sense. Granted this isn't a guarantee since its a game of chance but on average a state that puts in more combinations will in turn yield a more positive outcome when it come to amount of winners. Which is why im taking a lottery break if you will especially from the MM.

I agree.  Naturally the States with the biggest population of people and people playing the game has the best chances of winning it all.  So you are right there.  But the game being random won,  Naw. I don't believe that (jmo)   The lottery folks knows how many tickets has been sold to keep up with the jackpot right.  So now that everyone has ran there tickets through the computer, now the computer has a print out of all the numbers that is being played for the day, right.  Now lets say, their are 1,000000 people with the same identical numbers. Do you think the Lottery will drop their numbers?  I don't think so, if they did it would break the lottery and they wouldn't be able to pay it all out.  So what I'm saying is,  if to many people is riding the same numbers, those number will never fall.  Same applies to pick 4 and pick 3.   You will know when a number is consider slow or cold, that's a number that is being play by to many people and the lottery will not let that number drop.  If the number is fast or hot, that's a number that has a very few people playing and they will let it be drawn a lot.  This just makes sense.

gy65

Quote: Originally posted by Redd55 on Mar 31, 2018

It was New Jersey -- undoubtedly someone got their legs broken.   Jester Laugh

Perhaps the NJ Lottery Website will offer some explanation, such as . . .

 

jjtheprince14

LP is finally catching on that only certain states can win.

New Jersey needs their own lottery and it needs to be way harder than MM or PB.

Ban them from MM and PB and give them a 11+1 matrix game with numbers that go from 1-999,999.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Quote: Originally posted by ekem6078 on Mar 31, 2018

Looks like ILL.  NY.  CA.  WA  &  TX are the States to be to winning it.

ekem..... Illinois has had 1 winner a year for the last 3 years of 15,16,17, so if a person operates under the idea of the "same state(s) win over and over", that state would probably be the best choice. California did have 2 winners in 2017, but had a drought all the way back to 8/2014. New York had a winner in Sept of 17 and went over a year and a half back to JAN 2016 before its previous win. Washington shows a winner in July of 2016 & a Seattle,WA winner in March of 2016, no winners in 2015 or 2014 and nothing since July/2016. My wonderful state of Texas did have 2 winners in a short period of time (*3/17 & 11/16) nothing since then and the previous winner was back in June of 2014. *The winner in 3/2017 bought his ticket up in Arkansas, so realistically Texas has only sold 1 jackpot ticket since July 2014.

Best of luck to us all

Theluckyguy

As usual, I just missed only 6 numbers again. Hopefully it will be my turn tonight. I have waited for so long.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

Skepticalsomething don't add up for sure 

but I wish them well the lucky buzzards

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by jjtheprince14 on Mar 31, 2018

LP is finally catching on that only certain states can win.

New Jersey needs their own lottery and it needs to be way harder than MM or PB.

Ban them from MM and PB and give them a 11+1 matrix game with numbers that go from 1-999,999.

lol.  I have some news for you:  If you remove all the states that have won jackpots, Mega Millions would no longer exist, because there wouldn't be enough ticket sales to support a game with a starting jackpot of $40 million.

If you want to be able to buy tickets for such a huge jackpot in less-populated states like Idaho and Minnesota you need to put up with including highly-populated states that will win the jackpot more often.  That's just simple mathematics.

Also, New Jersey does already have its own lottery and its own NJ-only games. They do pretty well already, I play them myself all the time.

uprrman's avataruprrman

I Agree! Lurking for the winner

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by hearsetrax on Mar 31, 2018

Skepticalsomething don't add up for sure 

but I wish them well the lucky buzzards

HRSTX:

Psyko wonder'$ how that LUCKY BUZZARD knew .....ball number 59 would pop in for a lighten strike 3 TIME'$$$ ??? Dupe Alert 

Bodia77

South Dakota=0 for megamillions not even the second price lol.

last time someone won second prices of mega millions in South Dakota the price was $250,000.

I hope i will bring the next jackpot home SmileBig SmileWink

Bodia77

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

Very Unusual , even my state website had the price jumped to 612 million. I woke up this morning and someone won. stranger things are happening lol.

Good luck to the winner anyways.

motto

yes it has always been the big states winning... New York,New jersey,California,Florida and PA.

MsBee18

I hear Tipton has ties in New Jersey.

motto

For the people who live in the loosing states you have a better luck playing you own numbers than a quick.

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Congrats to the Jersey winner.

Odds of 302 million to one and yet some people get upset because they didn't win. Just by being on this site with all the lottery information available you would think they'd no better. 

Bang Head

Truth be known those are the players the lotteries love.

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by MsBee18 on Mar 31, 2018

I hear Tipton has ties in New Jersey.

The Mega Millions drawings are held in Georgia, so I'm not sure what New Jersey ties would do for him.

paymentplan-man

yeah I agree with this so much. I was really thinking that 59 would strike thrice but then I seconded guessed myself. Originally was going to play 11-26-28-31-59 but I was like thinking nope that's not going to hit so i choose two tickets 8-21-31-32-56 and 4-21-31-32-56 respectfully. Granted I still wouldn't have won but 100+ feels better than zero bucks lol. But my money was worth the dream. I even spent a few hrs looking for the right lawyers in my local area. Again big congrats to all who won. God bless folks.

P.S I also played (5) quick picks and I didn't have a single number.

Redd55

Sales were high in California.  Second prize was $3.2 mil last Friday when someone won it. By Tues it was up to $400k and last nite $ 1.1 M.  Normally the pot increases only $100-$200k a roll. 

Bodia77

Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Mar 31, 2018

Congrats to the Jersey winner.

Odds of 302 million to one and yet some people get upset because they didn't win. Just by being on this site with all the lottery information available you would think they'd no better. 

Bang Head

Truth be known those are the players the lotteries love.

It's human nature. We like to take swipe at States that "Wins all the time" but still don't stop us from buying $2 ticket. 

It's fun to talk about stuff like that to keep the conversation going. No conspiracy here but you know people will talk good or bad even with the odds well 10 million to one, will still find a way to complain about price or something Lol. Anyways congratulations to the winner.

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Psyko thinks.....The Devil went down to Georgia (Good Friday)....Let It All Out

and "SPAT" on all my 50 ticket'$$$$$

          Bash Bat Thinking of... Bat Hit With Stick

Bodia77

Quote: Originally posted by motto on Mar 31, 2018

For the people who live in the loosing states you have a better luck playing you own numbers than a quick.

We have just 1 state lottery here. Jackpot starts $20,000 , it stays $20,000 for 3 draws before price is increased with $4,000.

Draw is Computer draw, i hate it. The scratch cards are even worse, $20 to win $250,000 top price with only 2 top prices. Whiles some states $20 for 1 million or even high price here it's different here.

So i stick with Lucky for life and the occasional Powerball and mega millions.

Cassie8620's avatarCassie8620

Quote: Originally posted by Toronto on Mar 31, 2018

What's the point of playing if someone else is going to win it

another new jerseyan nice. they have many winner's same as at times nc cali.

congrats.

 

and LOL @ Toronto. Even if 100 to 200 people won all fifty states, a Smileyfew in each state ya know, for 4 numbers and MM or PB number there would be enough$$$ cash,to keep making uncle sam happy! I wish more would win, when it's so high, but that only happend months ago when many won across the states/diff states.

-

I hate seeing only 1 singular win(when it's over 100 mill $) but congrats... This when my dad LOL say it's rigged so don't play, cassie, when only "1"win over 100 mill and only 1 person won.he says,"its' rigged,"because more can win and still have enough to go around."Dad says, "When people stop "foolishly"playing it each week, it will change where we will see more winner's when it's over a certain amount." LOL

maximumfun's avatarmaximumfun

Congrats to the winner - may they have much happiness and light-filled chaos as they settle into their new lifestyle!

Lottomeister's avatarLottomeister

the payouts are terrible especially at 2 dollars ticket.....$10 for picking 3/70 numbers?   NY pays over $20 for 3/5 in a 5/39. I hit 4/5 3 years ago in Mega and won $152. Mega now pays 4/5..$500 but last month I hit 4/5 in 5/39 and won $455. Ridiculous.

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Mar 31, 2018

lol.  I have some news for you:  If you remove all the states that have won jackpots, Mega Millions would no longer exist, because there wouldn't be enough ticket sales to support a game with a starting jackpot of $40 million.

If you want to be able to buy tickets for such a huge jackpot in less-populated states like Idaho and Minnesota you need to put up with including highly-populated states that will win the jackpot more often.  That's just simple mathematics.

Also, New Jersey does already have its own lottery and its own NJ-only games. They do pretty well already, I play them myself all the time.

Todd, since you live in New Jersey, are you the lucky player or a member of a lucky pool? 

 That would be sweet!

Todd's avatarTodd

Unfortunately not me! Disapprove

music*'s avatarmusic*

I predict that the winner or winners will have a very interesting life story or stories to tell the World. 

 The winner or winners are getting the professional advice and help they will need. 

 I wish the winner had been Todd. 

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Mar 31, 2018

Unfortunately not me! Disapprove

You're still a winner, Todd. You have the best lottery website on the planet!

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by wizeguy on Mar 31, 2018

You're still a winner, Todd. You have the best lottery website on the planet!

Aw, thanks! Smile

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Mar 31, 2018

Congrats to the Jersey winner.

Odds of 302 million to one and yet some people get upset because they didn't win. Just by being on this site with all the lottery information available you would think they'd no better. 

Bang Head

Truth be known those are the players the lotteries love.

I Agree!.. We back to a $40 mil starting jackpot, a shade over $19 mil, after taxes. All things considered, l doubt anyone would complain if they pulled that off! Sometimes you have to reach for the low hanging fruit. My attention is now on our Superlotto jackpot. Did the math, that's a sweet $25,000 a month walking around money for 25 years.We should be so lucky.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Quote: Originally posted by wizeguy on Mar 31, 2018

You're still a winner, Todd. You have the best lottery website on the planet!

I Agree!

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by Toronto on Mar 31, 2018

What's the point of playing if someone else is going to win it

Well, the person that won was maybe saying the same thing. I like to play just dreaming what might be. $2, (for me $3 for playing powerplay and megaplier) is chump change.

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 31, 2018

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

Hey CDanaT, don't let facts get in the way of anyone's whining conspiracy.

And congrats on you 4/5!

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

I would be more than happy to win the starting jackpot. All the attention is on who won the "big one".

And I can live happily ever after on $24 million.

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Mar 31, 2018

I would be more than happy to win the starting jackpot. All the attention is on who won the "big one".

And I can live happily ever after on $24 million.

I Agree!  Good Luck rcb!

Rigged50

I have seen many things that make me wonder about the validity of the game. I actually think the odds are worse than the odds the MM and PB post on their websites. For example they say odds are 1 in 292 Million, or whatever because that is the number of combinations of numbers. But the reality is when you buy Quick pick they are given the same number to other people. I have been playing for decades but one example is i bought a ticket at 7-11 in Newport News, Virginia in 2014 and the guy in front of me purchased his ticket before me, i went out to his truck to see his numbers because when he was in the store i glanced at his numbers and 3 of his numbers were the same as mine and i was right, i have seen this repeatedly. I am wondering how many millions of people are getting the same numbers when they purchase quick picks. The problem is we can't see all the QP numbers that the machines are spitting out but if we did we would probably be pissed. Another incident i purchased a ticket around 8am at one store and then 12pm at another store in Virginia, there were 3 numbers the same as well. If i am seeing this i wonder if anyone else has noticed this pattern and if so there will never be a chance where any of us let alone 4 or more individuals win a lottery of this magnitude and we are basically wasting our money. Please respond, thanks.

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by Rigged50 on Apr 1, 2018

I have seen many things that make me wonder about the validity of the game. I actually think the odds are worse than the odds the MM and PB post on their websites. For example they say odds are 1 in 292 Million, or whatever because that is the number of combinations of numbers. But the reality is when you buy Quick pick they are given the same number to other people. I have been playing for decades but one example is i bought a ticket at 7-11 in Newport News, Virginia in 2014 and the guy in front of me purchased his ticket before me, i went out to his truck to see his numbers because when he was in the store i glanced at his numbers and 3 of his numbers were the same as mine and i was right, i have seen this repeatedly. I am wondering how many millions of people are getting the same numbers when they purchase quick picks. The problem is we can't see all the QP numbers that the machines are spitting out but if we did we would probably be pissed. Another incident i purchased a ticket around 8am at one store and then 12pm at another store in Virginia, there were 3 numbers the same as well. If i am seeing this i wonder if anyone else has noticed this pattern and if so there will never be a chance where any of us let alone 4 or more individuals win a lottery of this magnitude and we are basically wasting our money. Please respond, thanks.

Do l understand you correct Rigged50, that you going up to total strangers,and asking them to show you their lottery ticket numbers? Given your name,are you implying that the lottery is "Rigged?"

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960

Quote: Originally posted by Toronto on Mar 31, 2018

What's the point of playing if someone else is going to win it

Green laugh

So true Toronto!!

Rigged50

Yes i approached him, i was very respectful to him. I told him that while he was in the store i was curious and peeked at his numbers when the cashier handed him his ticket and it seemed they were similar to mine and when i approached him it was daytime and i was in my military uniform so, no threat. Showing a lottery ticket is not like seeing your credit card or pin number. If more people were open like he was to let me see his numbers than it would be a lot harder for the American citizenry to be fooled. Another incident; i was reading an article on 5 Jan 18 about that nights MM's drawing and the writer was from NY, he posted a pic of a QP he bought which had 3 of the same numbers that i had on a QP for that night and i am in Louisiana. And i believe that because repeat numbers are being used and most of the time its 3 numbers together most people that play will never win more than $100. The number generator as is, is flawed and 80% of the people that buy tickets use the quick pick method. If people are receiving the same numbers like i have seen in my history of purchasing tickets than the odds are way longer than what is being advertised and the regular joe is basically burning his money. And if i am right about the increased odds that means there are millions of number combinations that are not being pushed out through the lottery machines. So for ex. if 100 million combinations are being pushed out that means over 180 million are more are not, just my thoughts. If i'm wrong show me and don't try to shout me down, thanks.

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960

Quote: Originally posted by kennedygrandma on Mar 31, 2018

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

I live in NJ kennedy. It's nice that someone from my state won but I'm just as miserable as everyone else who didn't win. 

Toronto

LOL No one cares about the measly jackpots at this point usamega didn't even update with the numbers for Saturday. Should just turn it off until it reaches $300m+

Redd55

Quote: Originally posted by Toronto on Apr 1, 2018

LOL No one cares about the measly jackpots at this point usamega didn't even update with the numbers for Saturday. Should just turn it off until it reaches $300m+

I and others care. I would have been very happy to have won the PB jackpot of $50 million or my state lotto of $22 million.  USAMEGA may have decided to go to bed at a normal time after being up all night on Friday. 

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by Rigged50 on Apr 1, 2018

Yes i approached him, i was very respectful to him. I told him that while he was in the store i was curious and peeked at his numbers when the cashier handed him his ticket and it seemed they were similar to mine and when i approached him it was daytime and i was in my military uniform so, no threat. Showing a lottery ticket is not like seeing your credit card or pin number. If more people were open like he was to let me see his numbers than it would be a lot harder for the American citizenry to be fooled. Another incident; i was reading an article on 5 Jan 18 about that nights MM's drawing and the writer was from NY, he posted a pic of a QP he bought which had 3 of the same numbers that i had on a QP for that night and i am in Louisiana. And i believe that because repeat numbers are being used and most of the time its 3 numbers together most people that play will never win more than $100. The number generator as is, is flawed and 80% of the people that buy tickets use the quick pick method. If people are receiving the same numbers like i have seen in my history of purchasing tickets than the odds are way longer than what is being advertised and the regular joe is basically burning his money. And if i am right about the increased odds that means there are millions of number combinations that are not being pushed out through the lottery machines. So for ex. if 100 million combinations are being pushed out that means over 180 million are more are not, just my thoughts. If i'm wrong show me and don't try to shout me down, thanks.

If memory serves me correct, I think the $1.6 billion Powerball run, the media said all possible combinations have been sold.  Won $6 in Indiana, have yet to check the California & Kentucky tickets.  Massachusetts, I trust your lottery enough and never check my Season Tickets

Rigged50 how do you feel in the one state that uses paramutual (sp) and two players just got a taste over $223K each vs a million in the other 43 states and jurisdictions in Powerball.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Quote: Originally posted by Toronto on Apr 1, 2018

LOL No one cares about the measly jackpots at this point usamega didn't even update with the numbers for Saturday. Should just turn it off until it reaches $300m+

T.........you sound like Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore............ If you honestly think folks don't care about jackpots, you my, fellow poster, are seriously operating on a different theory than Millions of lottery players. Forget about the MM & PB for a second. Look at the scratch-offs or games with 5,4 & 3 numbers. Right now our Texas game called "2Step" has a jackpot of over $1 million and our state lottery is at $20.5 million. 

It's gambling, not everyone wins. They don't had out trophy's for 41st place. That's why the odds are so high. It is NOT flip a coin and guess heads or tails. Whining about it never solved anything. Either you are in and play or you are out. Open up the winning history on the MM and look down through the years. Tell those folks they should have "just turn it off until it reaches $300m+".....

Our state of Texas generated $9,199,186.00 in regular sales for that last MM draw, plus the extra and just the jackpot, it came to $10,467,004. There were almost 4,600,000 tickets sold for that MM jackpot alone. There were 234,558 winning tickets that returned money to the players.

 

Your incessant complaining  might make you feel better and draw attention to your postings. My suggestion is you don't play. That way, you won't lose a dime and won't have to act like a Gloomy Gus !

To my fellow posters, I do hope you will forgive me should this posting irritate you. I just call it like I see it.

Have an enjoyable Easter day.

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Apr 1, 2018

T.........you sound like Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore............ If you honestly think folks don't care about jackpots, you my, fellow poster, are seriously operating on a different theory than Millions of lottery players. Forget about the MM & PB for a second. Look at the scratch-offs or games with 5,4 & 3 numbers. Right now our Texas game called "2Step" has a jackpot of over $1 million and our state lottery is at $20.5 million. 

It's gambling, not everyone wins. They don't had out trophy's for 41st place. That's why the odds are so high. It is NOT flip a coin and guess heads or tails. Whining about it never solved anything. Either you are in and play or you are out. Open up the winning history on the MM and look down through the years. Tell those folks they should have "just turn it off until it reaches $300m+".....

Our state of Texas generated $9,199,186.00 in regular sales for that last MM draw, plus the extra and just the jackpot, it came to $10,467,004. There were almost 4,600,000 tickets sold for that MM jackpot alone. There were 234,558 winning tickets that returned money to the players.

 

Your incessant complaining  might make you feel better and draw attention to your postings. My suggestion is you don't play. That way, you won't lose a dime and won't have to act like a Gloomy Gus !

To my fellow posters, I do hope you will forgive me should this posting irritate you. I just call it like I see it.

Have an enjoyable Easter day.

Happy Resurrection Day!

 

I agree 100%.  Said it before and will say it again, I'm more than content to take one of the secondary prizes.

This reminds me of fair weather friends/sports followers.  They're around when the getting is good.  When things go south, their true colors show.

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by wizeguy on Mar 31, 2018

I Agree!  Good Luck rcb!

Thank you wizeguy!

Cheers

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Apr 1, 2018

Thank you wizeguy!

Cheers

You're welcome!

cps10's avatarcps10

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Apr 1, 2018

T.........you sound like Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore............ If you honestly think folks don't care about jackpots, you my, fellow poster, are seriously operating on a different theory than Millions of lottery players. Forget about the MM & PB for a second. Look at the scratch-offs or games with 5,4 & 3 numbers. Right now our Texas game called "2Step" has a jackpot of over $1 million and our state lottery is at $20.5 million. 

It's gambling, not everyone wins. They don't had out trophy's for 41st place. That's why the odds are so high. It is NOT flip a coin and guess heads or tails. Whining about it never solved anything. Either you are in and play or you are out. Open up the winning history on the MM and look down through the years. Tell those folks they should have "just turn it off until it reaches $300m+".....

Our state of Texas generated $9,199,186.00 in regular sales for that last MM draw, plus the extra and just the jackpot, it came to $10,467,004. There were almost 4,600,000 tickets sold for that MM jackpot alone. There were 234,558 winning tickets that returned money to the players.

 

Your incessant complaining  might make you feel better and draw attention to your postings. My suggestion is you don't play. That way, you won't lose a dime and won't have to act like a Gloomy Gus !

To my fellow posters, I do hope you will forgive me should this posting irritate you. I just call it like I see it.

Have an enjoyable Easter day.

LOLLOLLOL

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Ohio had a 5+0 MM winner which is as close to wlnning the jackpot as any state can get and not win it which proves to me any state can win with a little luck.

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Apr 1, 2018

Ohio had a 5+0 MM winner which is as close to wlnning the jackpot as any state can get and not win it which proves to me any state can win with a little luck.

Hi RJ. Nice to see you post again.

I was wondering if you were doing well.

music*'s avatarmusic*

The store's name LukOIL should now be changed to Lucky Oil. Congratulations to the owner and the employees. You are now on the map. Here is wishing many more wins come your way.Blue Angel

 Happy Easter everyone!

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

"the media said all possible combinations have been sold."

The media may have said it, but that doesn't make it true. Sales for the record PB were roughly 635 million tickets. If all tickets were chosen randomly just about 89% of combinations would probably have been sold, leaving just over 10% unsold. As with all  things probability, what really happens may be somewhat different than what probability theory suggests but if you sell 635 million tickets the actual results will be pretty close.

Since a lot of people who choose their own numbers play birthdays and common patterns the number of combinations used by any given number of self-pick tickets will be less than with the same number of random tickets, but it probably doesn't skew things very far from what random probability suggests.

Reaching an even 90% coverage would require sales of about 673 million tickets. It would take another 673 million tickets to sell 90% of the remaining 10% of combinations. It would then take yet another 673 million tickets to sell 90% of the remaining 1% of combinations. You may notice a pattern here. Selling 99.9999% of combinations would (theoretically) require selling 6x673 million tickets. That would be a hair over 4 billion tickets (figure an advertised jackpot of at least $5 billion), and still leave 292 combinations unsold for an extremely small, but very real, chance of yet another rollover.

"If you honestly think folks don't care about jackpots ..."

Sales for starting jackpots are typically around 11 to 12 million tickets, which means that perhaps 2 to 3% of the population buys a ticket. More people may care about the small jackpots, but if they don't buy a ticket they can't care all that much.

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Apr 2, 2018

"the media said all possible combinations have been sold."

The media may have said it, but that doesn't make it true. Sales for the record PB were roughly 635 million tickets. If all tickets were chosen randomly just about 89% of combinations would probably have been sold, leaving just over 10% unsold. As with all  things probability, what really happens may be somewhat different than what probability theory suggests but if you sell 635 million tickets the actual results will be pretty close.

Since a lot of people who choose their own numbers play birthdays and common patterns the number of combinations used by any given number of self-pick tickets will be less than with the same number of random tickets, but it probably doesn't skew things very far from what random probability suggests.

Reaching an even 90% coverage would require sales of about 673 million tickets. It would take another 673 million tickets to sell 90% of the remaining 10% of combinations. It would then take yet another 673 million tickets to sell 90% of the remaining 1% of combinations. You may notice a pattern here. Selling 99.9999% of combinations would (theoretically) require selling 6x673 million tickets. That would be a hair over 4 billion tickets (figure an advertised jackpot of at least $5 billion), and still leave 292 combinations unsold for an extremely small, but very real, chance of yet another rollover.

"If you honestly think folks don't care about jackpots ..."

Sales for starting jackpots are typically around 11 to 12 million tickets, which means that perhaps 2 to 3% of the population buys a ticket. More people may care about the small jackpots, but if they don't buy a ticket they can't care all that much.

Media got that one wrong didn't they?  Since THREE winning tickets were sold on that record PB drawing. 

 

KY Floyd, do me a favor and see if you can find out how many, if any, were QP's, OK?  Head pounding too hard to research today.

fwlawrence's avatarfwlawrence

Riverdale? Did someone named Archie win?

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

Wonder if Hill had anything to do with this WON.......???  Bash  Oh wells..ey Psyko can always blame the the Repubs for this....

                                                      Thumbs Down Thud"WON" ThudThumbs Down Turkey

ressuccess's avatarressuccess

Congratulations to the winning ticket. I hope the winning ticket chooses the cash option!

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by ressuccess on Apr 2, 2018

Congratulations to the winning ticket. I hope the winning ticket chooses the cash option!

Choose cash option? What if the winner is an18 - 25-year-old with no experience handling money and will not follow advice from professionals? Maybe he or she abuses drugs and alcohol. The next thirty years could be a chance to learn finance and life in general. Outside of a school setting. 

 Of course, I would research how the lottery will invest the money in New Jersey. Each State is different.

No Pity!

wander73's avatarwander73

First time since Nov posting on this site.   The owner of that store knows who it was.   It was a regular customer that's all they're saying.  Good job for that store owner.

 

 It sounds like a soul winner.

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