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With a jackpot hitting $390 Million and additional prizes reaching up to $250,000 Dollars the MegaMillions is one of the biggest lottery drawings in the United States.   |
How To Play
Players may pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers: five different numbers from 1 to 56, and one number from 1 to 46. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Mega Millions Lottery History
The game began on August 31, 1996 as The Big Game. The first drawing took place on September 6, 1996, with six states participating: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia.
Since May 2002, Mega Millions lottery jackpots have started at $12,000,000 with top winnings paid over 26 years. Please bear in mind that every lottery winner will need to pay both federal and state taxes from his lottery winning. Some states do not deduct state taxes from the lottery winnings while others, on the other hand, do not have state income taxes at all. Please refer to our Mega Millions Taxes page to read more about the taxes you will need to pay from your lotto winning.
Lottery jackpots increase every time when there is no jackpot winner. A lump sum cash value option is available as well, however, a winner would normally receive around a half of the advertised jackpot value in the latter case.
Today the lottery can be played from 12 states, including: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Measures Taken to Insure Randomness
Held at WSB-TV studio in Atlanta, Georgia every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00PM Eastern Time drawings are conducted under rigid security procedures:
The drawing machines and ball sets for each game are randomly selected and certified by outside auditors, to ensure that balls and equipment allow each number an equal chance of being drawn.
Each Lottery drawing machine and ball set used goes through a series of pre-drawing tests to ensure the absolute randomness of the results.
There also are a series of post-drawing tests, which are conducted as part of the certification process.
Two draw officials who are lottery employees and one member of an independent auditing firm administer tests.
In addition to these measures, all of these steps are videotaped to further ensure the integrity of the process.
All draw equipment is securely maintained with limited access to draw officials only.
The entire process takes approximately three hours for a drawing that takes less than 60 seconds. Play Online...
Mega Millions official website
Wikipedia page about Mega Millions