New York: The record US Mega Millions lottery jackpot shared among three big winners last week, soared to USD 656 million -- higher than the USD 640 million earlier estimated, officials said on Tuesday.
"With sales from all 44 Mega Millions lotteries calculated and totalled, the final jackpot amount for the Friday, March 30 drawing came to $656 million dollars. That record-shattering amount was the result of unprecedented sales in all jurisdictions where Mega Millions is played," the lottery agency said in a statement. Millions of Americans lined up hoping to suddenly become very, very rich despite having only a one-in-176-million chance of winning.
Winning tickets were purchased in the states of Illinois, Kansas and Maryland -- among the 42 US states plus the federal capital Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands, taking part. The winning numbers -- 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 with Mega Ball 23 -- were announced at 11:00 pm Friday (0830 IST Saturday) but it took another 12 hours for the company to announce that there were three winners.
PTI