85K 'Winning' Mega Millions Tickets Sold in Connecticut But Don't Get Too Excited

By Patch Staff

Here we go again.

Nobody drew the winning numbers during Tuesday night's Mega Millions jackpot, which means that the next drawing on Friday, July 8, will be an astounding $508 million with a cash option of $357 million.

We say "here we go again," because the huge numbers are reminiscent of the buildup — the absolute mayhem and madness — that occurred in January, when the Powerball numbers exceeded the $1 billion mark.

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Remember that? The jackpot eventually grew to $1.586 billion (with a "b," people) before the winning numbers were drawn on Jan. 13 by three people in California, Florida and Tennessee.

No one got the jackpot Tuesday, but the multi-state lottery prize has now grown to the point where it ranks as the seventh-largest in U.S. history, lottery officials said on their website. That billion-dollar prize at the start of the year still ranks as the undisputed heavyweight among jackpots, but the Mega Millions is emerging as a worthy contender.

Lottery officials said there were seven million-dollar Match 5 winning tickets in Tuesday's draw — including one won somewhere in Texas. Additionally, one each was won in California, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

In Connecticut, 85,248 "winning tickets" were sold but the top winner in the Constitution State was one person who won $25,000 according to the Connecticut Lottery.

Three people won $5,000, three more won $2,500, 24 won $500, 25 people won $250, 99 won $50 and about 80,000 plus people won between $1 and $10.

The Connecticut Lottery urges people to play responsibly.

“We encourage people to use their ‘GameSense,’ or common sense, when gambling,”said CT Lottery’s President and CEO, Anne M. Noble in a statement. “When jackpots reach levels in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it is important that consumers use good judgment and remember ‘don’t chase your losses,’ ‘know when to take a break’ and ‘please play responsibly.’ It only takes one ticket to win.”

Click here for more information on the Connecticut lottery and where to find a retailer. In Connecticut, you can buy a Mega Millions ticket as late as 10:45 p.m. on the day of a drawing.

For the record:

The winning numbers for July 5 were 29-46-53-64-73 and a mega ball of 10.

Lottery officials said the jackpot has been growing since it was last won at a paltry $157 million by Michael Burkett in Washington on March 8. The other jackpot awarded this was year another puny $169 million prize won in New York won by Nancy Viola on Jan. 8, officials added.

The record Mega Millions jackpot is $656 million, and three tickets shared that jackpot on March 30, 2012. Just behind that is the $648 million jackpot split by two winners on Dec. 17, 2013.

The next Mega Millions drawing will take place Friday at 11 p.m.

At this point in our standard lottery pieces, we're compelled to alert you to the odds of actually matching all six numbers and retiring to live a life of leisure: Tuesday's odds were one in 259 million. To put that in perspective, the odds of getting struck by lightning are 1 in 12,000, according to the National Weather Service.
So you do the math.

As mentioned, Friday's draw will rank as the seventh-largest in recorded U.S. history.

Just for grins, here's a list of the top — and staggeringly, rather shockingly huge — jackpots of the recent past:

• Game: Powerball

Amount: $1.586 billion

Date: 1/13/2016

Winning tickets: 3-CA, FL, TN

• Game: Mega Millions
  

Amount: $656.0 million

Date: 3/30/2012

Winning tickets: 3-IL, KS, MD

• Game: Mega Millions

Amount: $648 million

Date: 12/17/2013

Winning tickets: 2-CA, GA

• Game: Powerball

Amount: $590.5 million

Date: 5/18/2013

Winning tickets: 1-FL

• Game: Powerball

• Game: Powerball

Amount: $508.0 million (est)

Date: ?

Winning ticket: ?

• Game: Powerball

Amount: $448.4 million

• Game: Powerball

• Game: Powerball

Amount: $425.3 million
Date: 2/19/2014
Winning ticket: 1-CA