$1.1B Mega Millions lottery: Retailers can also win
California service center owner was paid $1M last year
Raising Cane's CEO AJ Kumaran shares why he bought 50,000 lottery tickets for all his employees as the Mega Millions jackpot hits $810 million
Lottery players are not the only ones hoping to win big when the winning numbers are drawn for Tuesday night's estimated $1.1 billion Mega Millions jackpot ($568.7 million cash). Ticket sellers can earn a bonus of up to $1 million, depending on their state.
Payouts can happen even before those prizes are claimed.
The rules vary from state to state. Ohio, for example, pays up to $100,000 to retailers who sell jackpot-winning tickets. In Illinois, retailers can get up to a $500,000 bonus and in California, that benefit tops out at $1 million.
The state lotteries say it’s part of their efforts to encourage retailers to promote ticket sales. Some business owners say they also often see at least a temporary surge in business, as superstitious players stop off to buy their tickets at a spot where someone hit it big.
MEGA MILLIONS HITS $1.1B: HOW THE FED IS FUELING WHALE-SIZED JACKPOTS
Mega Million sign displays the estimated jackpot of $1.1 billion at the Fuel On Convenience store in Pittsburgh, Jan. 9, 2023. The drawing Tuesday night is the fifth-largest ever. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar / AP Images)
Since someone won the jackpot in October, there have been 24 consecutive drawings without a winner.
There have been a total of more than 27.1 million winning tickets sold in the 24 drawings since the jackpot was last won on Oct. 14. These include 52 worth $1 million or more, won in 20 different states from coast to coast.
Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot ranks as the fifth-largest lottery prize and second-largest Mega Millions prize. The only Mega Millions jackpots larger than Tuesday’s estimated $1.1 billion are the game’s record of $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018, and $1.337 billion won in Illinois last July 29.
MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT TOPS $1B: WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WIN
Joe Chahayed, owner of Joe's Service Center in Altadena Calif., works at his business, Nov 9, 2022. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The biggest lottery jackpot was November's record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in California.
The winner of that massive sum remains a mystery, although a ticket matching all six numbers drawn on Nov. 9 was sold at Joe's Service Center in Altadena. The center's owner Joe Chahayed was paid his $1 million bonus by lottery officials. He told reporters he planned to spend the money on his five children and would donate some of it to help his community.
Mega Million cards are displayed at the Fuel On Convenience store in Pittsburgh, Jan. 9, 2023. ( AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar / AP Images)
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Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.