Friday, March 25, 2011
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Albany Herald
Photo by David Sebastian
The top prize in the multi-state game has been growing twice a week for nearly two months, since players in Indiana and Michigan split a $45 million jackpot on Feb. 1.
Brisk ticket sales prompted lottery officials to bump the top prize up from an earlier-announced $304 million to $312 million.
If a single player matches all six numbers in tonight's drawing and chooses the cash option, that player would receive an estimated $198 million before taxes. If that player chooses to be paid over time, he or she would get approximately $12 million a year for 26 years.
Saturday night's Powerball game carries a current jackpot of $125 million.
The odds of winning the top Mega Millions prize are one in 175 million, slightly better than the one in 195 million odds of winning Saturday's Powerball jackpot.
More like this story
- Tonight's Mega Millions jackpot is worth $244 million ( March 21, 2011 )
- Powerball surges past $200 million ( June 8, 2012 )
- Two winning tickets to split $355 Mega Millions jackpot ( January 4, 2011 )
- Lottery ticket worth $49 million sold in Thomasville ( November 28, 2012 )
- Lottery fever gets contagious ( November 29, 2012 )
