Mega Millions Jackpot Soars As Iowans Snatch Up Tickets

Lottery players in the state of Iowa won 78,000 prizes during last Friday's Mega Millions drawing. But none of those hit the big one. The 1 billion dollar payout. The Iowa Lottery said that two tickets matched four of the first five numbers and the mega ball and won $10,000. Another ticket won $20,000 using the Megaplier.

A total of 78,286 tickets sold in Iowa won prizes ranging from $2 to $20,000. More than $4 million in tickets were sold in Iowa for Friday's drawing with nearly $2.8 million in sales coming on Friday alone. During the busiest stretch on Friday, between 6 and 7 p.m., tickets were selling at a rate of $5,800 per minute!

The majority of Iowans, around 94%, let the machine pick their numbers for them. No doubt they'll be buying more tickets over the next two days. Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot is at $1.6 billion. The cash option is $904 million before taxes. Those are simply mind-numbing numbers. I'll see you all in line.

[via IC Press-Citizen]