148,368 'Winning' Mega Millions Tickets Sold In Connecticut

Once again no one won the $1 billion record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot on Friday, Oct. 19, which means Tuesday's grand prize will be a jaw-dropping $1.6 billion. In Connecticut, there were 148,368 "winning" tickets sold, which means someone won between $2 and $20,000.

So you'll definitely want to check your tickets and see if you won some money in advance of Tuesday's historic jackpot.

Winning numbers: The winning Mega Millions numbers for Friday, October 19 are: 15, 23, 53, 65 and 70. The gold Mega ball is 7. The Megaplier is 2.

In Connecticut, one person won $20,000, four people won $10,000, 12, $1,000, 62, $500, 68, $400, 168, $200, and everyone else took home between $2 and $20. The $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot will be drawn on Tuesday, Oct. 23. (To sign up for free, local breaking news alerts from more than 100 Connecticut communities, click here.)

What does $1 billion even look like? If you stacked 1 billion $1 on top of each other, the pile would be 358,510 feet high. That many $1 bills would cover a 4-square-mile area, or 2,555 acres, or stretch 96,900 miles if laid end to end.

And, can you believe this, $1 billion in dollar bills would weigh 10 tons. That's all according to the Cox Media Group, which put together the numbers ahead of a drawing for a huge lottery jackpot.

And, not to bring you down as you dream of what you'd do with $1 billion, technology titan Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, would still be 160 times richer than you are.

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But who's counting chump change? You'd be as rich as "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling. And for the $1 billion in lottery winnings, you could get a couple of George Clooneys and Elton Johns, or five Johnny Depps.

America has a serious case of Mega Millions fever about right now. At any given time Friday, close to 200 million people were searching for "what will $1 billion buy?" on Google. Depending on where they live, the time to claim a Mega Millions prize ranges from 180 days to one year from the draw date.

Matching five white balls, but not the gold Mega ball, wins a ticket holder the second-place prize for Mega Millions — $1 million. If a ticket holder matches the five white balls, but not the gold Mega ball, and they get the Megaplier, the ticket is worth $5 million.

"It's always a thrill to have both jackpots rolling, but there's an extra spark now with Mega Millions reaching a new record," said Gordon Medenica, Mega Millions lead director and Maryland lottery and gaming director. "Everyone is talking about the jackpot and running out to buy tickets for tonight's drawing."

The last Mega Millions jackpot was won on July 24. An 11-member office pool in Santa Clara County, California won a $543 million jackpot. That was the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket. Mega Millions has been breaking records all year it seems.

So far, this year, four Mega Millions jackpots have been won. First, a Florida player won a $451 million prize on January 5, then a $533 million jackpot was won on March 30, by a New Jersey player; a $142 million jackpot was won in Ohio on May 4; and then the Californians won their $543 million jackpot on July 24.

In 2017, by comparison, there were six jackpots won during the year. In March 2012, the prize spiked to $656 million before being won. The grand prize was split between winners in Kansas, Maryland, and Illinois.

In the six years since that drawing, only one other jackpot has come close to the $656 million mark, a 2013 prize that swelled to $648 million.

A single play costs $2. Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 (the Mega Ball number). Players can also use an easy pick feature, where a computer selects random numbers for them. To win the jackpot, a player much match all six numbers.

The odds of picking the correct numbers on five white balls and one yellow ball are one in 259 million. No matter how many people play Mega Millions, the chances of winning never change. The chances of winning are based on the amount of number combinations, not the number of players buying tickets, say lottery officials.

Mega Millions is played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings take place at 11 p.m. ET each Tuesday and Friday. Want to know if Mega Millions is played near you? Check out the Mega Millions website and find out!

Jackpots have been won in 22 of the 44 participating states. All of the original Mega Millions participating states have seen a resident win at least one jackpot.

After a jackpot is won, the Mega Millions game automatically resets to $40 million and grows with each lottery where there is not a winning jackpot ticket sold.

History of Mega Millions

The Mega Millions game began in 1996 as the Big Game, according to the Mega Millions website. The original Big Game was only played across six states: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia.

In a neat bit of trivia, there was actually a winner in the very first Big Game (aka Mega Millions) drawing. On May 17, 2002, someone got lucky in Illinois and took home a $28 million jackpot. Just one week later a second jackpot was won. That means there were two jackpot winners in three drawings.

To the shock of no one, the game grew rapidly from from 1996 through 2002, expanding into New York, New Jersey and Ohio. Once the Big Game had begun to spread across the east coast, it was renamed Mega Millions.

By January 2010, 23 more states joined the Mega Millions game. The craze had spread to the West Coast. As mentioned before, in late 2018, Mega Millions is now played in 44 states nationwide, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C.

Since its inception, there have been 179 Mega MIllions jackpots that have been won by 203 individual tickets. Roughly 20 jackpots have been shared between two or more winning tickets, the organization said.

Mega Millions launched a new prize matrix in 2013 and became the first wide-spread lottery game to offer a second-place prize, with rewards reaching up to $5 million.

Here is a list of the 10 largest jackpots in Mega Millions history (prior to the current jackpot):

1. $656 million, won on March 30, 2012 — Three winning tickets sold in Kansas, Illinois, Maryland
2. $648 million won on December 17, 2013 — Two winning tickets sold in California and Georgia
3. $543 million won on July 24, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in California
4. $536 million won on July 8, 2016 — One winning ticket sold in Indiana
5. $533 million won on March 30, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in New Jersey
6. $451 million won on January 5, 2018 — One winning ticket sold in Florida
7. $414 million won on March 18, 2014 — Two winning tickets sold in Florida and Maryland
8. $393 million won on August 11, 2017 — One winning ticket sold in Illinois
9. $390 million won on March 6, 2007 — Two winning tickets sold in New Jersey and Georgia
10. $380 million won on January 4, 2011 — Two winning tickets sold in Idaho and Washington

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