Mega Millions Rises to $256 Million
UNITED STATES – The Mega Millions jackpot continuesto be the talk of the country, as a total of 2,024,023 tickets from coast tocoast were winners in the Friday, February 24 drawing. Since no ticketmatched all six numbers to win the estimated $212 million jackpot, the jackpotfor the Tuesday, February 28, 2006 drawing grows to an estimated $256 millionor a cash value of approximately $153 million.
The winning numbers in Friday's drawing were: 03-05-12-16-34 and the MegaBall number was 27.
A total of 22 tickets came within a heartbeat of winning the jackpot, bymatching the first five numbers and only missing the Mega Ball number. Thosetickets were purchased in California (4), Georgia (1), Illinois (1),Massachusetts (1), Michigan (3), New Jersey (3), New York (4), Ohio (2), Texas(2) and Virginia (1).
This jackpot has been growing since January 6, when Mega Millions had itsmost recent jackpot winner in Norwalk, Ohio. The jackpot has now rolled 14times without a winner. The odds of winning the jackpot are approximately onein 176 million. The odds of winning any of the Mega Millions prizes areapproximately 1 in 40.
Pari-mutuel prizes means that prize amounts vary with the number oftickets sold and the number of winning tickets in each prize category.
Mega Millions is played in 12 states: California, Georgia, Illinois,Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginiaand Washington.
Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 PM EasternTime, 10:00 PM Central Time and 8:00 PM Pacific Time.
2006-02-28
