The giant Mega Millions® and Powerball® jackpots have now both been won. The $1 billion jackpot in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing was won by a ticket purchased in Michigan, while Wednesday’s $731.1 million Powerball jackpot was won by a ticket in Maryland.
This was first time that the games’ jackpots had simultaneously topped the $700 million mark.
Drawing Details, Iowa Tickets That Won Prizes
A total of 50,106 plays purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing.
The winning numbers in Friday’s drawing were: 4-26-42-50-60 and Mega Ball 24. The Megaplier number was 2.
In Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, 41,368 plays purchased in Iowa won prizes, so between the two games, Iowa players won prizes on more than 91,000 plays in the latest drawings.
Iowa Lottery players bought more than $2.7 million in Mega Millions tickets for Friday’s drawing, including more than $1.8 million in tickets on Friday alone. Given the ongoing COVID-19 health emergency, those figures are understandably both well down from sales totals during other recent times with giant jackpots.
The average Mega Millions purchase on Friday in Iowa remained about $6, or three plays per ticket. Lottery officials were pleased that Iowans had fun playing and didn’t go overboard.
Easy Pick vs. Your Own Numbers
The vast majority of tickets being purchased in Powerball and Mega Millions are easy picks, meaning that the player opted to have the lottery terminal randomly select the numbers involved. Nearly 94 percent of the plays purchased for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing were easy picks.
The odds of winning are the same for every ticket in the games, whether the player buys an easy pick or chooses their own numbers. There are more easy-pick winners simply because most of the tickets being purchased are easy picks.
The ‘Longest Roll’
The length of time that a jackpot continues to grow is often referred to as a roll, meaning that it keeps rolling without being hit. Powerball and Mega Millions both just ended their longest rolls ever. Friday’s drawing was the 37th since the Mega Millions jackpot had last been won on Sept. 15 while Wednesday’s drawing was the 36th since the Powerball jackpot had last been won Sept. 16.
I love the line "Woo Hoo"!!!
Posted by: Morgan Judge | January 26, 2021 at 05:12 PM
I agree with Randy, I've made this suggestion in the past and the standard answer is ...
"I'll run this by the Lotto board and see what they say?"
That's as far as it goes, We must remember lotto employees can't play lottery games so they need to hit the Jackpot every payday!
Now we wouldn't want to cut into that would we Randy?
Posted by: Kevin Pidima | January 25, 2021 at 05:36 PM
I wish you would figure it out on ALL your games for lower odds so it would be more fun to play.
Winning a smaller amount of money more often would seem to me as a result of more ticket sales and "Whoo Hoo's", rather than a long roll time and an astronomical single pay-out.
Don't be so stingy.
Posted by: Randy Nurnberg | January 23, 2021 at 09:39 AM