With the buzz growing over Friday night’s $1.35 billion Mega Millions drawing, there’s a little-known fact behind that eye-popping whopper of a jackpot that ranks as the fourth-largest lottery in U.S. history.
Like everything else these days, it’s being turbo-charged by inflation. And the gap between the OMG number on the billboards and what the winner likely will take home is getting wider.
Most people who win the lottery choose to cash out on their winnings, meaning that they withdraw the money all at once and receive a reduced total. And ever since the summer of 2020, the gap between the value of cash-out prizes and the quoted totals that appear on signs plastered across America has grown considerably, a Bay Area News Group analysis of Mega Millions prize data found.
