The Lotto Matrix: Woo Pig Sooie And No Millionaires For Life Yet

First things first

How much is Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot drawing worth? Our “big boy” is this close to being a “grown man” with a $496 million jackpot up for grabs. The cash option is a sturdy $232.6 million, having jumped $20 million after two more rollovers.

It was a quiet week for second-tier winners. No one matched five numbers in either drawing, and February ended with just three tickets lacking only the Mega Ball. A total of 18 tickets contained four numbers and the Mega Ball over the last two drawings, leading to $560,000 in payouts.

Interestingly, four of the last five drawings have had at least one winner with four numbers and the Mega Ball land a 10x multiplier, leading to $100,000 prizes. There have already been nine such payouts this year, after 11 were recorded for all of 2025 following the mid-April changeover.

Even as the Mega Millions jackpot grows, we’re still waiting on a first drawing in 2026 with an estimated 7 million in ticket sales. Last Friday looks to be the clubhouse leader, with nearly 6.9 million, after 299,604 tickets returned some sort of payout.

How much is Saturday’s Powerball jackpot drawing worth? A “paltry” $35 million that features a cash option of $16.5 million. March kicked off with a bang, as Monday’s $251 million jackpot was won in Arkansas via the Jackpocket mobile app.

Jackpocket officials confirmed it was the largest jackpot prize won via its mobile app in a press release through the Arkansas State Lottery, and the Razorback State is now home to two of the last three Powerball jackpot winners. The other winner split a record $1.817 billion Powerball jackpot from the Dec. 24 drawing, claiming the $834.9 million cash option before taxes.

“We’re thrilled for our customer in Arkansas and amazed that just their second order placed with Jackpocket resulted in a life-changing $250.8 million jackpot — setting a new Jackpocket record,” said Pete Sullivan, SVP, Lottery at DraftKings. “This historic win underscores our commitment to delivering a best-in-class, secure, and seamless lottery experience for our customers.”

“We are excited to make Arkansas lottery history with another Powerball jackpot win in just over two months,” added ASL Executive Director Sharon Strong. “As with our other lottery prizes, the benefits of this win are multi-layered. From raising funds for in-state student scholarships to supporting our retailers and contributing to the state’s economy, we look forward to seeing this positive impact spread across Arkansas communities.”

Monday night also saw a ticket match all five non-Powerball numbers in Puerto Rico and the winner there ticked off the power-play option for a $2 million payday. Eight of this year’s 26 second-prize winners have doubled their winnings via the power-play option.

Why would you (allegedly) do that?

WYFF-TV in Greenville, South Carolina, is reporting a FedEx driver has been charged with attempting to influence a game by tampering.

Averious Jethomas Ajee Griffin is accused of taking a package from the South Carolina Education Lottery and stealing “multiple” scratch-off tickets on Dec. 10 at a FedEx delivery location in Anderson.

The arrest warrant states that after Griffin opened the package, “he then placed the package into his personal vehicle and transported it to his residence without authorization or consent.”

Still no Millionaires for Life

It is now 12 days since Millionaire for Life launched and there has yet to be a winner for either of the top two prizes heading into the weekend. One reason is that as a new lottery product, this period is marked by a low percentage of possible number combinations being played.

Estimated tickets sold have topped 600,000 just twice, including Thursday night. But consider how small 600,000 tickets are as a percentage against the 22.9 million-plus potential combinations of numbers that can be drawn. It’s slightly better than 2.5%, and that’s assuming every ticket has unique numbers that were not duplicated.

That means every drawing thus far has had a roughly 1 in 40 chance that someone could match all five numbers and the Millionaire Ball. And every drawing is a “new” drawing. That 2.5% does not carry over into the next drawing and leave fewer potential combinations available.

The top payout so far for any ticket is $7,500 and the combined prize money for that tier of winners ithus far is $547,500. Stack that against an estimated $30.2 million worth of tickets sold and it may take a long while for the playing public to catch up in terms of large prize monies won.

The most refreshing bottle of water ever bought

KTLA-TV in Los Angeles is reporting that a man’s decision to purchase a bottle of water ahead of a workout led to a flood of money.

Brian Crandall went to the Nite Mini Market in East Hollywood with what he thought was a few dollars in his pocket, but discovered he also had a $20 bill among them. Feeling lucky, that led to the purchase of the California Lottery’s $20 Instant Prize Crossword Scratchers ticket.

Crandall thought he had won $2,000 at first, before the clerk confirmed it was the top prize available among the three crossword scratchers.

“I thought, oh, wow, I won $2,000. Then I squinted and thought that it was $200,000. Then I went to the counter and confirmed with the clerk who got so excited and said, ‘No, it’s $2 million!’” he recalled.

Crandall said he plans on using his winnings to purchase a home in the Houston area to be closer to his children. It is the 16th of a possible 61 top $2 million prizes claimed for the three crossword scratchers.

Newsworthy Nuggets

Kindness gets rewarded, people: Ryan, a Maryland man, allowed a woman to go ahead of him on line to check out items at a Walmart in Severyn. As a measure of gratitude, the woman gave him two $10 scratch-off tickets.

One ticket proved to be a $50 winner, so Ryan did what most of us would do: He pressed his luck and purchased a pair of $1,000,000 Crossword scratch-offs. One of those turned out to be a grand-prize winner.

Ryan told Maryland Lottery officials he originally went to Walmart to do some shopping for his mother and to redeem a scratcher worth $500. When he purchased the $1,000,000 Crossword, he scratched the prize check to reveal the QR code, which gave him a “see lottery” message. Ryan knew it would be a large prize, but his initial thought of $10,000 was slightly off.

An already happy story has a happier ending as Ryan is engaged and will be marrying his fiancée in a few weeks. He said part of their winnings will go toward new cars for each of them.

Another example of persistence paying off: The Michigan Lottery reported a Jackson County resident claimed the second of 12 $1 million prizes available in the $50 Millionaire Maker scratch-off. The winner, who wished to remain anonymous, told lottery officials they have been playing the various versions of Millionaire Maker since its inception in 2019.

“I’ve been buying one Millionaire Maker ticket a week since the game came out,” said the lucky winner. “I scratched the ‘Your Numbers’ section of the ticket first and saw 44 had ‘$1MIL’ underneath it. Then I scratched the ‘Winning Numbers’ section next. When I revealed 44 as one of my winning numbers, I thought: ‘This can’t be real!’ I tried to stay calm, but I was so excited.”

The winner opted for a lump sum payment of $693,000 and plans on putting that money toward retirement. Both top prizes of $6 million are still available for the $50 scratcher, which launched last September.

Where is the biggest active individual state lotto jackpot? The Lotto Matrix finally has some upheaval on the Top 5 leaderboard this week, after someone claimed the $32 million Super Lotto Plus jackpot in California last Saturday.

California Lottery officials reported the winning ticket was sold at the Circle K at 681 E. Foothill Blvd in Upland, approximately 40 miles east of Los Angeles. While the winner has yet to come forward, the retailer receives a $160,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

The Golden State’s departure means Texas slides into the top spot with a $27.75 million jackpot available Saturday night. The Hoosier Lotto in Indiana is a distant No. 2 with $15 million in the offering, and Massachusetts‘ Megabucks now occupies the final podium spot, boasting a $12.95 million top prize or a $9 million cash option.

Oregon is one rollover away from an eight-figure jackpot with $9.6 million at stake Saturday night. The newcomer this week is an old standby in Florida, which checks in with a $6.75 million jackpot for Saturday night.

Three more rollovers have pushed the Lotto America jackpot to $17.08 million, and the cash option is a robust $8.03 million heading into the 91st drawing since a winning ticket was sold in South Dakota for a $4 million jackpot Aug. 6.

Until next week, dream big, check your numbers, keep your tickets where you can find them, and play responsibly!