Megabucks is one of several lottery games operated by Massachusetts State Lottery.
Entry costs $1.00, with draws taking place twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 23:20 local time. Tickets are on sale until 22:45 on draw days, resuming at 05:00 the following day.
To enter Megabucks, choose six numbers from 1 to 49, or go for a “Quic Pic” [sic] to play with six randomly generated numbers.
1 in 10 Megabucks tickets are upgraded to a Megabucks Doubler ticket. Players with a Doubler ticket get twice the amount if they win a secondary prize.
Advance Season Tickets can also be bought, with three-month, six-month or one-year options available from Massachusetts State Lottery.
The minimum guaranteed Megabucks jackpot is $500,000.
Megabucks does not have a jackpot or rollover cap, but with the jackpot increasing by a mere $60,000 or $70,000 per draw until a winner can be found.
The biggest Megabucks jackpot managed to rise to $15,619,880 on July 14, 1984.
The odds of winning the Megabucks jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816. While these are reasonable odds for a lottery game, other “match six” lotteries around the world offer far higher prizes at similar odds.
Players can win prizes at four different tiers, with prize amounts being fixed for all secondary prizes.
Megabucks prize winners have up to one year to make a claim; however, jackpot winners must inform the Massachusetts State Lottery within 60 days if they wish to receive winnings as a lump sum, otherwise payments will be made in 20 equal annual amounts.
Winnings of over $600 are subject to 5% state taxation, with prizes of over $5,000 having an additional 25% deducted for federal tax. This tax is paid at source, even for players from abroad, who are advised to check applicable tax laws at home.
Players must be at least 18 years of age to buy lottery tickets in Massachusetts.
Megabucks tickets are available from authorized lottery retailers across Massachusetts, with players in the United States able to buy season tickets online, or via telephone if they would like tickets posted to them.
While individual Megabucks tickets cannot be purchased from the official Massachusetts State Lottery website, they can be bought on selected Lottery Agent websites.
Megabucks was launched in 1982 and has kept the same format ever since.
The only change to Megabucks came in 2009 when the Megabucks Doubler was added to generate bigger prizes.
Megabucks is operated by the Massachusetts State Lottery, founded in 1971 to oversee a large number of lottery games across the state.