[Benjamin]

Lottery fever has swept the US hours before the draw for a $640m (£400m) Mega Millions prize, the biggest jackpot in world history.

Queues have been snaking out of shops from coast to coast with some punters snapping up tickets by the bushel.

The prize has been swelling since 24 January, with no winner matching all five numbers in the last 18 draws.

Forty-two states are in the big draw, which takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at 23:00 EDT (03:00 GMT).

The prize had stood at $540m before Friday's announcement. Lottery officials estimate that customers will have spent some $1.5bn on tickets by the time of the draw.

A jackpot winner could choose between receiving the full amount of $640m in 26 annual payments (more than $24m a year) or an instant cash option of more than $460m.

Continue reading the main story
How to spend your jackpot


Don McNay
Author and financial columnist
Try to stay anonymous. If your identity gets out, it can be hard to escape the attention - and those who want some of your fortune.
Take the money over time - 98% of jackpot winners choose instant payout options, but most people run through that money in five years or less. You can make better use of the money, and plan better, by taking the prize in annual installments. It can sometimes also be better from a tax perspective to receive the prize over time.
Find a financial adviser, or ideally a set of advisers, who have experience working with assets as valuable as your prize. Many winners ask their friends or people they know to help them manage their money, but they are not equipped to help you make the best decisions.
Use some, or preferably most of the money to give back to society. The happiest winners are usually the ones who used their money for public good.
The largest jackpot to be paid out until now was a $390m Mega Millions prize that was split between two winners in 2007.

One hopeful ticket-buyer, Allsaints Macauley, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Washington DC, told the BBC that if he won he would drive his vehicle to one of the capital's busiest intersections and leave it behind to be towed away.

"I'd skip town with my children to a place where the temperature will not go below 86 [F] and just hang out.

"The guys on Wall Street invest my trust, so my kids will never have to drive a cab or wash dishes like I did."

Also in the queue was Mike Notarangelo, 52, unemployed, who said: "I'd set up my daughter, take care of my parents, and choose some charities to get some of the money.

"After that, I would travel the world. See all those places I've never been to."

In California, some shops have been experiencing a ticket-buying frenzy, after lottery officials in the Golden State revealed which outlets have previously sold the most winning tickets.

Ryan King, a 33-year-old construction worker, told the Los Angeles Times: "I've already spent the money in my head, 300 times."

The Las Vegas Sun reports that people have been driving to a shop on Nevada's border with California to buy tickets.

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“
Start Quote

You are about 50 times as likely to get struck by lightning as to win the lottery”

Mike Catalano
Mathematics professor
Some $2,600 of tickets were sold to one buyer at a cafe in the state of Arizona, reports the Associated Press.

Even the relatively wealthy have apparently not been immune to the lottery bug.

NBA basketball player Chris Singleton, who earns a reported $1.5m playing for the Washington Wizards, said on Twitter that he planned to splurge $10,000 on tickets.

The Kansas City Star that the winnings could buy a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a private island near Phuket, Thailand, or a fleet of 200 Bugatti sports cars.

But the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against any one person matching the six-ball jackpot.

Lottery officials say the chance of winning is just one-in-176 million. Tickets cost $1.

Mathematics professor Mike Catalano of Dakota Wesleyan University told the Associated Press news agency: "You are about 50 times as likely to get struck by lightning as to win the lottery, based on the 90 people a year getting struck by lightning."

Based on other US averages, a person is 8,000 times more likely to be murdered, or 20,000 times more likely to die in a car accident than to win the lottery, he added.

The states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada are not participating in the draw.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17553329


Crazy! Imagine being the sole winner of that.

[Glenn.]

The penny sweets I could buy

[Mrluvaluva]

Imagine the interest...

[GypsyGoth]

I don't think I'd like that much money, it'd ruin my life.

[Ramsay]

Jaysus..i'd love to win that but i dont think i will ever do the lottery..my mum has been doing it since she was 18..i tell her all the time by the time that she might win the lottery she's probably spent more more on the tickets over the years then the lottery win itself

[Z]

That's an incredible jackpot total!

[Shaun]

That's too much money. I hope whoever wins it donates a bucketload to charity

[rk3388]

shame on that nba player for pretty much handing 10,000$ to a big corporation when he could use it on charities

[Harry!]

I have been playing the lottery for the last few weeks and not won anything

[Smithy]

Apparently there were 3 winning tickets bought in Kentucky

[Jack_]

Very jealous of whoever wins that. Why can't we have jackpots like that over here

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by GypsyGoth

I don't think I'd like that much money, it'd ruin my life.

Originally Posted by Shaun

That's too much money. I hope whoever wins it donates a bucketload to charity

..this

[King Gizzard]

Would hate to win that much, 300k would do

[Marc]

A ridiculous amount of money!

[arista]

Originally Posted by Marc

A ridiculous amount of money!

Not for America



One Rich Sports Star bought 15,000 $1 tickets
no big win.

Ref:FoxNewsHD

[Novo]

Half of that would be going to Rangers straight away

[Marc]

Think I'd buy Rangers for you Andy

[BBfanUSA]

I believe that was Skateboarder Rob Dyrdek

[Benjamin]

So there were three winners?

[Shaun]

Yeah, don't think they were all from Kentucky though. In fact none were. Smithy

The largest lottery jackpot in US history – a whopping $656 million (€491 million) – will be shared by the buyers of three winning Mega Millions tickets in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland – but their identities remained a mystery, lottery officials said.

A pre-dawn call alerted Denise Metzger, manager of a Motomart convenience store, to news from lottery officials that her store had sold a winning ticket in the tiny farming community of Red Bud in southern Illinois, with less than 4,000 residents, about 48km (30 miles) southeast of St Louis.

“I screamed, I woke my husband up,” said Metzger, whose retail outlet will receive $500,000 for selling a winning ticket.

The Mega Millions lottery created a stir across the country, with people rushing to buy the $1 tickets. In all, more than a billion tickets were sold.

At least two of the winners’ tickets were “quick picks” .

The lucky numbers announced on Friday night in Atlanta were 2-4-23-38-46 and Mega Ball 23.

Lottery officials said winning tickets were purchased at a 7-Eleven store in Milford Mill, Maryland, and the Motomart convenience store in Red Bud.

The Kansas Lottery said a winning ticket was sold in the most populated northeastern part of the state but did not give the precise location.

[Smithy]

Well I got the 3 bit right

[Benjamin]

Imagine realising you had won. That must be such a mind ****. I have no idea what I would do.

[Locke.]

I hope the one in Maryland was Bubbles

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

we have euromillions and the jackpot for that sometimes gets up to like 100+ million

or it did once anyway in like 2008 i remember

[Shaun]

It's interesting that that woman's outlet wins $500,000 just for selling a winning ticket... does that happen over here?