Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot Now Record $370 Million

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 posted 03:09 PM EST

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot climbed to $370 million, the biggest in U.S. history, as public interest in the payout prompted officials to shift tonight's drawing to New York City's Times Square from Atlanta.

The jackpot, which is determined by tickets sold, has increased from an estimated $340 million yesterday as sales have topped expectations, according to a Mega Millions statement. The lottery will be drawn at 11:00 p.m. New York time.

It's the biggest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, exceeding the $365 million multistate Powerball drawing last year won by a single ticket sold to a group of eight ConAgra Foods Inc. workers in Nebraska. The next-largest was a $363 million jackpot in a lottery known as the Big Game, which involved seven states and became Mega Millions when five more states joined.

A single Mega Millions ticket costs $1. The jackpot accumulates if no ticket exactly matches the six numbers drawn, and has rolled over 15 times since the last winner of the bi-weekly lottery on Jan. 12. The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 176 million, and there's a 1 in 40 chance to win prizes starting at $2, according to the statement.

Tickets for the lottery are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Players choose five numbers from a field of 1 to 56, and a single mega-ball number from a field of 1 to 46, according to the New York Lottery.

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