Mega millions how much for 3 numbers

The odds of hitting Friday’s $1 billion-plus Mega Millions jackpot are astronomical and the chances of winning a far smaller lottery prize are fairly low too, but that’s part of the fun of dreaming big.

The overall odds of winning something after buying a $2 Mega Millions lottery ticket are 24 to 1.

To begin with, there are two sets of Mega Millions balls. Five white balls are drawn out of a drum containing 70 balls. Then single gold Mega ball is drawn out of a second drum with 25 balls.

Players can increase their prize amounts by spending an extra $1 for the Megaplier option to win two, three, four or on rare occasions five times as much. The Megaplier only applies to non-jackpot prizes.

Friday’s $1.025 billion jackpot has a cash option of $602.5 million and is for the moment the fourth biggest in U.S. lottery history. The prize figured to climb before the drawing.

Here are the Mega Millions odds and prizes explained:

Let’s start with the small prizes.

The odds of your ticket matching only the gold Mega Ball is 37 to 1. On a single $2 ticket purchase, that’s a break even.

There’s a 1 in 89 chance your $2 gamble will net you $4 — a $2 profit.

It’s a 1 in 693 shot to buy a ticket containing two numbers and the Mega Ball but the payout is a scant $10.

These are the biggest lottery jackpots on record in the United States as of July 2022. The estimated jackpot for the upcoming Mega Millions drawing on July 29 could go even higher, depending on the volume of ticket sales.Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

If your ticket matched three of the five white balls, you still win just $10. The odds of hitting three numbers, but not the Powerball are a tad better than matching two numbers plus the Mega Ball — 606 to 1.

The good news is that the prize amount has finally reached triple digits - $200. Far less encouraging are that the odds of buying a ticket matching three numbers plus the Mega Ball are 14,547 to 1.

A ticket that matches four numbers, but not Mega Ball, is one numbers away from winning serious money, but only gets you $500. It’s a 1 in 38,792 shot to be that fortunate, though. New Jersey Lottery officials said 199tickets for Tuesday’s drawing matched four numbers. Seven were purchased with the Megaplier option, multiplying the prizes to $1,500.

The prize climbs all the way to winning $10,000 if you manage to beat the roughly 931,001 to 1 odds and match four numbers plus the Mega Ball.

Seven third-prize tickets were sold in New Jersey for Tuesday’s drawing — six are valued at $10,000 and one is worth $30,000.

The life-changing money begins at this prize level. All you have to do to win at least $1 million is match the numbers on the five white balls drawn, but not the Mega Ball. Good luck overcoming the 12,607,306 to 1 odds, though.

Two lottery players in New Jersey beat those odds for Tuesday’s drawing — one Tenafly and one on in Point Pleasant and won $1 million apiece.

The dream for any lottery player is hitting the jackpot. The odds of buying a ticket that matches all five numbers and the Mega Millions are a ridiculous 302,575,350 to 1.

A New Jersey player last hit the Mega Millions jackpot on July 24, 2020 when someone who bought a ticket in Bayonne won $123 million. The cash option was $100.1 million. Winners in New Jersey have had the option to remain anonymous since January 2020 so the lucky ticket-holder’s identity has never been publicly revealed.

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Getty Mega Millions

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot has grown significantly and it’s now at $1.1 billion for the next drawing on Friday, July 29, 2022. The drawing is at 11 p.m. Eastern. If you match one, two, or three Mega Millions numbers, how much do you win? Here is everything you need to know about the rules.

If You Match One Number, Here’s What You Win

You don’t get much if you only match one number, and depending on the color you matched, you might not win anything at all.

If you only matched one white number, then you haven’t won anything tonight. If you matched one yellow ball (which is the last number drawn), then you’ll win $2. You can put that money into buying one more Mega Millions ticket, which costs $2 each.

If You Match Two Numbers, Here’s What You Win

If you match a yellow ball and a white ball during tonight’s drawing, then you will walk away with $4, according to Mega Millions’ rules which you can read here. That’s enough to buy yourself two more tickets for $2 each in the next jackpot.

But if you only match two white balls and don’t match the yellow ball, you won’t win anything. A lot of people match two of the white balls and get excited until they realize that they won’t be getting anything that way.

If You Match Three Numbers, Here’s What You Win

If you match 2 white balls and 1 yellow ball, you’ll win $10, according to Mega Millions’ rules which you can read here. If you match 3 white balls, you’ll also win $10. This is one of the few times in the rules where matching yellow or white doesn’t change the amount of money that you walk away with. It’s not much, but it’s enough to more than reimburse the cost of your ticket. Or you can put those winnings into buying more tickets and playing in the next lottery.

How the Megaplier Works

If you bought a ticket with the Megaplier option (in states where this is available), then it will increase non-jackpot prizes by up to five times as much, depending on what the Megaplier drawing. The Megaplier option costs $1 more per ticket.

Fifteen Megaplier balls are in the drawing, five with 2X, six with 3X, three with 4X, and one with 5X. This will increase any of the winnings above if you get the Megaplier. For example, matching one yellow ball normally wins you $2. But if you have a Megaplier of 2, then your one yellow ball match is now worth $4, and it’s worth $10 if you had a Megaplier of 5.

And yes, the Megaplier applies all the way about to matching five white balls. So if you have a Megaplier of 5 and match five white balls for $1 million, you’ll actually win $5 million.

Other Ways to Win

In order to win tonight’s jackpot, you’d need to match all five white balls and the yellow Mega ball. If you match all five white numbers only, you’ll win $1 million (and more if you’re using a Mega plier option.) If you match 4 white and the yellow, you’ll win $10,000. If you match 4 white only, you’ll win $500. If you match 3 white and 1 yellow, you’ll win $200.

The odds of winning Mega Millions are 1 in 302.6 million, which are actually less than the odds of winning the Powerball, which is 1 in 292.2 million. Mega Millions changed its rules in October 2017, making the odds of winning the big jackpot lower (they used to be 1 in 258.9 million.) On October 28, 2017, Mega Millions increased the cost of buying a ticket from $1 to $2. They also changed the play structure. Instead of picking five numbers out of 75 and 1 number out of 15, players now pick five numbers out of 70 and 1 out of 25.

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