Mega Millions Worth $363 Million Tonight, Did You Buy a Ticket? – Survey of the Day

The jackpot for the lottery game that’s played in 42 states (yes, Colorado is one) as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Island is an estimated $363 million tonight. Lives will change if a winning number is drawn Tuesday night, or excitement will be stoked to fever-pitch if no winner is drawn and the jackpot increases even more. We did a survey a few weeks back about what you would do if you won the lottery, but to win you have to play! Are you planning on it? 

The prize is the third-largest in the game’s history. The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $390 million in March 2007, according to Mega Millions.

So do you have a strategy for purchasing the golden ticket?

While the chances of winning Mega Million are slim – the odds of winning the game’s top prize are about 1 in 176 million — that hasn’t stopped many millions of people from dreaming big.

Richard Lustig is a seven-time lottery winner in Florida who plays the lottery like a full-time job. Sure, he loses sometimes. But he’s also won more than $1 million.

Here are his tips for buying tickets:

1. Pick your own numbers. Don’t leave it up to the machine. Lustig advises against playing Quick Picks, the phrase describing the number the computer picks for you when you don’t use your own.
2. Do your homework. Go online and make sure the set or sets of numbers you play have never come up before.
3. Stick with your strategy. You have to learn what number to play and how often to play. Commit to your numbers and stick to your strategy.
4. Avoid lottery fever. When jackpots get this high, Lustig says, people tend to get lottery fever and spend a lot more than they normally would or can afford. Don’t go crazy; the odds are still the same no matter how much you spend.

Now that you know how to win, go to the local convenience store and pick up your ticket. Mega Millions tickets cost $1.00 per play. Players may pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers - five different numbers from 1 to 56 and one number from 1 to 46 - or select Easy Pick. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.