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August 28, 2009
Due to high sales, tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot is now an estimated $333 million, raised from $325 million. This is the second largest jackpot ever in the Mega Millions game.
Lottery officials now expect players to purchase about 5 million Mega Millions tickets in Virginia today alone. During the busiest times of the day, such as the lunch hour and evening rush hour, about 10,000 tickets will be sold per minute in Virginia.
If a single ticket matches all six numbers in tonight’s drawing to win the jackpot, the winner will receive annual payments of about $12.8 million for 26 years. If the winner chooses to take the cash value of the jackpot, he or she will receive about $210.4 million before taxes.
If no ticket wins the jackpot tonight, the jackpot will most likely set the record for the largest ever in North America.
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.
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.
Please play responsibly.
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