WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | Mega Millions jackpot grows to $325 million
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ATLANTA (AP) -- The grand prize in the Mega Millions multistate lottery game is growing fatter still, to $325 million for the next drawing on Friday.
The jackpot has been rolled over because no player matched all the winning numbers in Tuesday's $252 million drawing.
Although no one took the big prize, 20 players won second prizes of $250,000 each, including two who bought tickets in Virginia.
Another 158 tickets nationwide are worth third prizes of $10,000. The winning numbers from Tuesday were: 3, 12, 19, 22 and 40. The Mega Ball number was 2.
News release from the Virginia Lottery office:
$325 Million And Still Growing! Mega Millions Is The Hottest Ticket In Virginia
Mega Millions is creating excitement and winners across the Commonwealth. In Tuesday's drawing, 130,033 tickets in Virginia won prizes ranging from $2 to $250,000. Since there was no jackpot winner, the estimated jackpot for the Friday, August 28 drawing grows to $325 million - the third-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. Mega Millions players in Virginia won more than $1.1 million in Tuesday's drawing, including two tickets that won $250,000 each. Those tickets were bought at:
* Parham Pit Stop, located at East 807 Parham Road in Richmond
* 7-Eleven, located at 3003 Columbia Pike in Arlington Virginia Lottery officials estimate that 4.7 million tickets will be sold on Friday, the day of the drawing, in Virginia alone. In fact, during peak times, tickets are expected to sell at a rate of more than 9,500 per minute across Virginia. If one ticket matches all six numbers to win the jackpot, that person can choose between payments of $12.5 million per year for 26 years or a lump sum cash value of approximately $204.6 million. Mega Millions has been hot in Virginia this year. So far in 2009, two tickets in Virginia have matched all six numbers to hit the jackpot. Another 37 tickets have won $250,000 by matching the first five numbers and missing only the Mega Ball number. Those two jackpot winners were Joe Denette of Spotsylvania County, who won $75.6 million in the May 1 drawing (he selected the cash option of $47.8 million) and Joe and Sue Claffy of Rappahannock County, who won $19 million (they chose the cash option of $11.5 million) in the May 15 drawing. Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 p.m. Eastern time. For more information please go to www.valottery.com. The odds of winning the jackpot are approximately one in 176 million. The odds of winning any of the Mega Millions prizes are approximately 1 in 40.
All profits from the Virginia Lottery, including Mega Millions tickets sold in Virginia, go to K-12 public school education in the Commonwealth. Nearly 95 cents of each dollar spent on the Virginia Lottery by players goes back to the Commonwealth in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retailer commissions. Since 1999, all Virginia Lottery profits have been designated solely to K-12 public school education in the Commonwealth. In that time, the Lottery has turned over more than $4 billion for Virginia's public schools. The latest annual profits of $455 million currently represent about 6 percent of state funding for public education in Virginia. In 20 years, the Lottery has sold more than $20 billion in tickets, awarded more than $1 billion in retailer commissions and paid more than $10.9 billion in prizes to players.
