Of the 50 states that compose the US only in 44 of them (and 2 extra areas) there official points of sale where players can purchase their Mega Millions tickets. Concretely, there are 44 states plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands.
The states that currently do not sell this lottery are: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah.
Interestingly, there are people who live in Nevada or Utah, and travel by car to the nearest states to buy Mega Millions tickets and participate in their millionaire draws.
The Mega Millions prizes have been distributed so far around 22 different states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio , Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The biggest MegaMillions jackpots
The following are the biggest jackpots of the Mega Millions lottery delivered to date:
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- $ 656 million, on March 30th of 2012, to be divided between three lucky players in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.
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- $ 648 million on December 17th of 2013, to be distributed among 2 winners, one in California and the other in Georgia.
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- $ 536 million for a single winner, in July 2016.
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- $ 533 million also for a single New Jersey winner in March 2018.
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- $ 451 million for a young man of only 20 years living in Florida in the draw of January 5th of 2018.
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- $ 414 million for a player from Maryland who took 7 weeks to decide to collect the corresponding prize.
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- $ 393 million, for an Illinois winner on August 11th of 2017.
- $ 390 Million for two winners on March 6th of 2007 in Georgia and New Jersey.
How to collect the Mega Millions jackpot
Few states allow the anonymity of the winners, although there is the possibility of managing the prize collections through legal offices and financial firms in trust.
The rules of this lottery allows to request the payment in a single payment or distribute it in 30 payments (1 initial payment and 29 annuities).
But what happens if a person has opted for the payment in annuities and dies before finalizing the collections?
Well, absolutely nothing happens, the regulation has foreseen and in that case will continue paying in the same conditions to the legal heirs.
