A $2 Mega Millions lottery ticket could pay off with an estimated $790 million prize, the nation’s fourth-largest jackpot. Your chance of winning the grand prize? One in 302.5 million.
FILE - A lottery ticket vending machine sits a convenience store, July 21, 2022, in Northbrook, Ill. The next Mega Millions drawing is Tuesday, July 25, 2022 with a jackpot at $790 million.
is minuscule, at one in 302.5 million. You have better odds of a smaller payoff, such as winning $1 million for matching five regular numbers but missing the Mega Ball. But even that is one in 12.6 million. To put that in perspective, your chance of dying in a car crash — something to consider as you drive to the mini-mart for a lottery ticket — is around one in 101 over a lifetime, according to the nonprofit National Safety Council.
And then there are federal taxes, which will slice off 37% off that cash prize, so that would leave less than $300 million, though state taxes could cut in to that amount as well, depending on where the winner lives. Still a fortune, but a smaller fortune. That also doesn’t account for the possibility someone else will match the winning numbers, meaning they would need to divide even those smaller winnings in half or more, depending on the number of lucky players.