The Mega Millions winning numbers for October 19 will soon be in, and America could have its newest billionaire.
The multi-state lottery shot up to more than $1 billion after no one matched all the numbers for Tuesday’s $642 million drawing, shooting the prize up to the second-largest in lottery history. Friday’s drawing saw a rush of ticket-buyers nationwide, all with the hope of beating the impossibly long odds and winning the jackpot (the winning Mega Millions numbers for October 19 along with a full list of payouts can be found below).
As CNN reported, there is a pool of nearly $1.5 billion waiting between Mega Millions and the other multi-state lottery, Powerball, which has reached its own $470 million jackpot.
If anyone is lucky enough to match all of the Mega Millions winning numbers on Friday, they would automatically be vaulted to a stratosphere of wealth that very, very few occupy.
“For some context, Taylor Swift’s net worth is reportedly around $300 million. If you win the Mega Millions ‘billion,’ you could take home $565 million and be almost twice as rich as her with absolutely none of the work,” the report noted. “Are you familiar with the Commonwealth of Dominica, a small island country in the West Indies? Their 2017 GDP was $562 million. You could literally be as rich as an entire country.”
The two gigantic lottery prizes have generated a number of lottery-related news stories, from interviews to hopeful players to explanations of just how astronomical the odds would be of winning; the chance of winning both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots would be 1 in 88 quadrillion, noted CNBC .
Other stories have focused on the difficulties lottery winners face, with many blowing through their earnings within a few years. That would likely be very difficult for the winner of the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, however.
Winning the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot won’t make you happier. via @cnbcmakeit https://t.co/NPWidoIxXb
— CNBC (@CNBC) October 19, 2018
If there is a lucky Mega Millions winner on Friday — which experts say is increasingly likely given the huge volume of tickets being sold — it will break a losing streak that stretched back into mid-summer. As CNN noted, the last Mega Millions winner was on July 24, when a group of 11 co-workers split the $543 million prize. It has been since August 11 that anyone took home a multi-state lottery jackpot, when a Staten Island man won the $245.6 Powerball drawing.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are 65 – 53 – 23 – 15 – 70 and Mega ball: 7 . A fill list of payouts for the Mega Millions lottery can be found here .
