This post has been updated
After a drawing earlier this week for a $363 million prize failed to yield a big winner, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot reached its most vertiginous level ever—$640 million.
It’s a mind-boggling record prize for the Mega Millions game, which is offered in 42 states and the District of Columbia. The Associated Press reported Tuesday’s drawing produced 47 tickets that picked five out of six numbers correctly—good for $250,000 a piece, one of which was sold in the District, another in Virginia and two in Maryland.
Even by Mega Millions’ extreme norms, more than half a billion dollars is stunning. The record amount distributed was a $390 million prize in January 2007 split by ticket-holders in New Jersey and Georgia.
The confounding sum has sparked something of a lottery fever, perhaps not seen so furiously since The Simpsons episode “Dog of Death,” when the residents of Springfield filled up wheelbarrows with tickets and searched Shirley Jackson’s disturbed short story “The Lottery” for hints.
The Associated Press reports that while no one appears to be consulting a 1948 short story about a village resident being stoned to death, hopeful lottery players all over the country are buying tickets in a frenzy.
Locally, the D.C. Lottery is hyping the potential half-billion payday with ticket tape printed with a special logo to mark the occasion. And while the odds of coming up with the winning combination are 1 in 176 million, D.C. Lottery Executive Director Buddy Roogow told the Post he expects Mega Millions to find its next big winner tonight.
At Press Liquors on 13th Street NW about 1:30 p.m., a line of players with dollar signs in their eyes snaked down the entire length of the store. At least one man was willing to put up $20 worth of picks.
Gina Consumano, who works in software sales and marketing at an office in the National Press Building above the store, stood in line examining her lottery ticket for the right blend of lucky numbers. She said she’s not a regular lottery player, but with $640 million at stake, “Why the hell not?”
A store clerk said that the line had been nearly out the door since yesterday, when the jackpot surpassed $500 million. Athena Hernandez, the D.C. Lottery’s communications director, said in an interview the agency expects sales for tonight’s drawing could reach 2.5 million, easily a record for the Mega Millions game. “Just be responsible,” she said, when informed we had not yet purchased tickets for ourselves.
The $640 million prize would be paid out over 26 years—about $24.6 million annually—if someone wins Friday. The lump-sum award is still a fetching $462 million. All figures are before taxes, of course.
The next Mega Millions jackpot is Friday at 11 p.m.
DCist contributor James Calder bought himself a ticket this week—before the jackpot went up by $100 million.
