Mega Millions jackpot drawing leaves Minnesotans unmoneyed, but state has seen other big winners this year
MINNEAPOLIS – After Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing, there are, unfortunately, no new billionaires in Minnesota, nor even millionaires.
The jackpot-winning ticket, worth an estimated $1.58 billion, was sold in Florida. That ticket carries a cash option of $783.3 million before taxes.
Five $1 million tickets were sold in California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Texas, where two winning tickets were sold. Two $2 million tickets were sold in Florida and North Carolina.
Minnesota also missed out on last month's $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot, the winning ticket for which was sold in California.
The Land of 10,000 Lakes does see its fair share of big winners, though nothing on the billion dollar scale in recent times. According to the Minnesota Lottery, there have been nine winners of prizes over $500,000 in Minnesota this year. The most recent occurred Monday – a ticket was sold at a Brooklyn Park gas station worth $685,499 in the Gopher 5. The largest prize-winning ticket in Minnesota this year was worth $1.8 million, sold at a gas station in St. Joseph in March.
If you are lottery-playing Minnesotan, you may want to double check your tickets – according to the Minnesota Lottery, there is an unclaimed Gopher 5 prize of $130,000 sold at a Speedway in Forest Lake in April. There are also several unclaimed $50,000 Powerball prizes.
The odds of winning the Mega Milions jackpot, by the way, are about 1 in 302.58 million. While it all boils down to luck, a Harvard statistician has devised some strategies to try to increase your odds, such as picking random numbers and playing often.
