US Mega Millions Lottery

Complete Odds &
Return to Players

           

View the new 2013 Mega Millions Analysis

The purpose of this page is to provide Mega Millions players with the supplemental information that is not readily available on the sponsored lottery site.



Mega Millions
Highlights
Jumbo
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Class Winners Losers Overall Odds Overall Return Return Sensitivity Payout per $

We believe this is important because most lotteries only provide players with minimal amount of information: the odds of each winning combination occurring; the overall probability of having a winning ticket; the price of each ticket; the game format; the total number of combinations; and a few other items.

However, this page fills in the missing blanks. Included here are the complete odds and probabilities of every winning and losing ticket. It provides you with a comparison of winners to losers, the monies collected, the monies distributed back to players, and more.

Lottery Power Picks has taken every effort to ensure that this summary information is correct by reading and bookmarking all information provided by the organizing lottery body. But, in certain instances, clearly defined rules are not written. In those instances, we made assumptions that are linguistically consistent with the rules. Should any information be incorrect, please inform us so that we may correct it. We hope you find this information useful in understanding the lottery you play.

Jackpot:  M
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Table MM7: US Mega Millions Expanded Odds Calculations

About Mega Millions a US Multi-State lottery that is played in 41 states, Washington DC, and the Virgin Islands. As part of the membership, all duties are shared by the member states. This operating model is different than most other multi-state or multi-country lotteries.

Format Mega Millions requires a player to make 2 choices: (1) Pick 5 numbers out of a set of 56 white balls; and (2) Pick 1 Megaball from a set of 46 balls. If the player picks the same numbers as those that are drawn in the next drawing, the player wins the Jackpot prize. Smaller prizes are awarded for other combinations.

Class Mega Millions is a Jumbo Lottery. We classify it as such because its Jackpot Parity is approximately $143 million, which is over $100 million.

Prizes The minimum Mega Millions jackpot prize is
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, which may be paid as either a annuity or as a discounted cash value. All other cash prizes are predefined as well and are summarized in the table above. If no one wins the jackpot amount, a portion of the proceeds is rolled forward to the next drawing, allowing the jackpot to grow. All other prizes are established as a fixed amount, and do not vary.


Combinations In the Mega Millions lottery, there are a total of
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combinations.

Winners Of these, there are
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winning combinations. This represents
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of the combinations. The overall odds of having a winning combination is
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to 1 (the lower the better).

Losers There are
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losing Mega Millions combinations. This is
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of the combinations. The overall odds of having a losing combination is
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to 1 (the higher the better; because as this number gets closer to 1, nearly every ticket is a loser.

Price  Each Mega Millions ticket costs 
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Money Raised  Assuming all tickets are sold and there are no duplicates, a total of 
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 will be raised.




Table MM-4: Mega Millions Lottery Summary
Format 5/56+1/46
Class Jumbo
Min Jackpot
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Jackpot Type Annuity
Combos
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Total Winners
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Total Losers
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Overall Winners
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Overall Losers
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Pct Winners
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Pct Losers
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Price
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Amount Raised
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Tot Payout
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Avg Ticket Payout
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Normalized Payout/$
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ReturnOn$
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Jackpot/Odds
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Return Sensitivity
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Jackpot Parity
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Prize Pool  Of this, 
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 will be allocated to the prize pool to be paid back to the players when the jackpot is set to 
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Average Winning Ticket Payout  On the average, each winning ticket will pay 
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 to the players. Since a ticket costs 
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, the normalized payout per Dollar spent is 
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Income Returned to Players  Based on this information 
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  of each $ raised will be returned to the players.


Return Sensitivity  If the Mega Millions Jackpot changes by $1.0 million, the above Income Returned to Players will change by 
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 (up or down).


Jackpot Parity  In order for Mega Millions to return $1.00 of each dollar raised, the Jackpot must be equal to 
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References
You can learn more about the Mega Millions Lottery and verify our findings by visiting our references.