WHO WANTS TO BE A BILLIONAIRE?
Brits CAN win America’s biggest ever Mega Millions £1.2billion lottery jackpot.. so here’s how YOU can get involved tonight
BRITS can become a billionaire by winning America’s biggest ever lottery jackpot – so read on if you’re feeling lucky.
There have been feverish ticket sales this week after Mega Millions revealed the colossal grand prize for tonight’s draw of £1.2billion ($1.6billion).
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And it is actually possible for Brits to get their hands on tickets and chance their arm at becoming a billionaire.
Physical tickets are only available in US stores – but overseas punters can still buy them from websites like theLotter.
The service uses local agents in America to snap up tickets before flogging them to customers from around the world.
It charges buyers a transaction fee but takes no commissions from winning tickets.
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The draw will happen tonight, and if a player hits all six numbers they can opt for an immediate cash payment of $904million (£798million) - or receive the $1.6 billion (£1,2billion) prize over 29 years.
It is so much money that if you had it all in $100 bills, you could make a stack about as high as the World Trade Centre in New York, the lottery’s website said.
The colossal purse would also make any lucky winner richer than all the Kardashians combined.
Based on sales projections, 75 per cent of the 302million possible combinations will be snapped up for Tuesday’s drawing, the Associated Press reported Sunday - making the chance of a winner being drawn more likely than not.
For those who don't win on the Tuesday, Wednesday's separate Powerball lottery prize sits at a respectable $620million (£476million) - making it the fifth largest prize in US history.
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The chance of winning the jackpot is roughly 30 times less likely than getting attacked by a shark in the US.
While the crowds typically increased as the jackpot gets bigger, several workers and ticket-buyers told USA TODAY nothing compared to the scale.
At a convenience store near Los Angeles International Airport, workers said the line snaked through the store on Friday, with roughly 700 people buying Mega Millions tickets.
One clerk said the line didn't stop from 6 am to 7 pm.
A nearby Shell reportedly sold so many tickets in the past week that they ran out of the paper slips for the lotto.
The hype led Brittany Hadley, 31, of Ventura, California, to buy a lotto ticket for the first time on Sunday.
What can you buy for $1.6billion?
- 3900 Aston Martin Vanquishes ($260,000)
- 15 Gulfstream G650 private jets ($65 Million)
- 910,000 Iphone X Maxs ($1,099)
- Almost four Neymar Jrs ($262 million)
Lead director of the Mega Millions Group Gordon Medenica said: “Mega Millions has already entered historic territory, but it's truly astounding to think that now the jackpot has reached an all-time world record.
“It’s hard to overstate how exciting this is — but now it’s really getting fun.”
Medenica told The Washington Post that the previous Friday’s sales had seen roughly 57 percent of the possible number combinations were purchased in advance, meaning the odds were in favour of someone winning.
But he said it was an “extremely pleasant surprise” there was no winner among the 280 million tickets.
Carole Gentry , a spokeswoman for Maryland Lottery and Gaming, said it was possible no one would win again.
Mega Millions is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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The jackpot beats the previous highest, for $1.586 billion Powerball, drawn on January 13, 2016, which was shared between winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
The chance of matching all six numbers is one in 302.5 million
Compared to the £1.2billion Us prize, some of the largest winners in the UK have including Adrain Bayford and his ex-wife Gillian, who won £148million on the EuroMillions in 2012, and Colin and Chris Weir who won £161million on the EuroMillions in 2011.
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