Your odds of winning the Mega Millions are 1 in 302 million; Here's what's more likely to happen
After Tuesday night's drawing in which no one claimed the top prize, the jackpot grew to a cool $1.025 billion, with a cash option of $602.5 million. The next drawing is Friday night.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Being struck by lightning, being killed by a shark and Texas winning the CFP National Championship in 2023 (a Longhorn can dream!). What do they have in common?
They're much more likely to happen than you winning the Mega Millions jackpot.
After Tuesday night's drawing in which no one claimed the top prize, the jackpot grew to a cool $1.025 billion, with a cash option of $602.5 million. The next drawing is Friday night.
While we can all ponder what we would do with that kind of money, we may all be getting a reality check instead of a money check.
After all, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350 or 0.00000033%.
Here are some things that are more likely to happen:
That's right, the Texas Longhorns are 3,782,194 times as likely to win the National Championship than you are to win the Mega Millions, at least based on current betting odds.
For what it's worth, Texas A&M is more than 12 million times as likely to win the championship than you are to win the Mega Millions.
But 1 in 302 million is still a chance. In fact, you're much more likely to win than being hit by a meteorite (thankfully!).
How's this for a mind-blowing fact: You are 30.4 billion times as likely to win the Mega Millions than you are to get a perfect NCAA bracket, if you just guess or flip a coin to determine your teams. That's right, billion with a B.
Even if you know a little about basketball and are more strategic in choosing your bracket, you're still 397 times as likely to win the Mega Millions jackpot.
Friday's jackpot of $1.025 billion is the third-largest in history. It's only the third time that the billion-dollar mark has been hit.
"We look with anticipation on the growing jackpot," said Pat McDonald, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium. "Seeing the jackpot build over a period of months and reaching the billion-dollar mark is truly breathtaking. We encourage customers to keep play in balance and enjoy the ride. Someone is going to win."
Friday's cash option of $602.5 million is almost four times as much as the largest lottery win ever in Texas.
In 2019, a Leander resident took home more than $157 million in a Mega Millions game.
In total, four players in Texas have won more than $150 million in various games under the Texas Lottery, while the top 10 have all claimed more than $60 million.