Texas Mega Millions Players Spend Millions Per Hour Chasing Prize

AUSTIN, TEXAS — It's been said that everything is bigger in Texas. In the feverish lead-up to the Mega Millions drawing for a jaw-dropping $1 billion jackpot, that bigness extended to spending on tickets with brisk ticket sales in the millions of dollars per hour with hopes and dreams of wealth coming with each purchase.

In a mere one-hour span on Friday — the last day on which to play into the massive lottery before the evening cutoff prior to the drawing — officials at the Texas Lottery Commission said nearly $5 million were sold. From 6 p.m. to 6:59 p.m. on Friday, lottery players in Texas bought $4,836,380 in Mega Millions tickets.

That's $80,606 worth of tickets sold per minute.

And that one-hour block was no aberration. That frantic pace was seen throughout the day, lottery officials said:

• From 8 p.m. to 8:59 p.m. Friday, Texas had $3,840,936 in Mega Millions sales. That breaks down to $64,016 per minute, according to lottery officials.
• From 7 p.m. to 7:59 p.m., $4,740,010 in tickets were sold, amounting to $79,000 per minute.
• From 5 p.m. to 5:59 p.m., $3,949,418 were sold. That's $65,824 per minute.

Little wonder, as the jackpot for Friday's drawing for the multi-state lottery was $1 billion — the biggest jackpot in the history of human civilization. The cash value option for those predisposed to instant gratification rather than the delayed rewards of annual annuities is $565.6 million, a rather robust amount in its own right.

Nobody has matched the six needed digits since July 24, pushing the jackpot to that implausible billion-dollar level and whipping Texas players — and those across the country — into a frenzy with dreams of riches spurring their spending.

While Texans were disenfranchised from their hard-earned cash for a shot at riches, the Texas Lottery Commission was palpably gleeful at the hype, mock-complaining how challenging it's been getting to include all the numbers on billboards given the massive size of current jackpots.

Tee hee:

As of late Friday, we still didn't know if a winning $1 billion ticket was sold. But we do know what the drawn numbers were. The winning Mega Million numbers for Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, are: 15-23-53-65 and Mega number 7. Those paying an extra dollar for the Megaply did so hoping to boost that potential windfall even greater in doubling the winnings.

Hold the phone. Early Saturday, we learned that nobody matched the numbers at Friday night's drawing, boosting the next jackpot to an mind-blowing $1.6 billion.

So you'll have another chance at financial freedom at the next drawing scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Oct. 23. If a winner emerges then, that person or persons will be able to opt for an estimated cash option of nearly $905 million.

But before you start planning your spending spree, know this: The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in more than 302 million, some 25 million less the number of the entire U.S. population. Play to your heart's content if you will (but please do so responsibly), but remember: The house always wins. The odds of winning to top prize used to be 1 in 259 million until the formula was modified to the current five-numbers-from-one-to-70-and-Mega-number format and lowering the odds in the process.

So there's that little hurdle to overcome. Still, may the odds be in your favor come Tuesday. But don't forget the little people when you're on top of the world perhaps rolling atop your stashes of bills and gold coins in a specially built room like Scrooge McDuck just because you can.

Get Patch's Daily Newsletters and Real Time Alerts

>>> Logo via Texas Lottery Commission