History of the Mega Millions Lottery
13/04/2009 00:50:40
The Mega Millions Lottery played in twelve participating American states is one of the richest lotteries in the world, boasting regular rollovers and some colossal jackpots this twice weekly lottery is one to play if you want the big jackpots. But where did it start and what is the history of the Mega Millions Lottery? It’s an interesting question and to answer it we need to rewind to 1996 when the lottery was launched.
Originally known as The Big Game, the Mega Millions Lottery holds the record for the largest jackpot in North American History. It began on August 31st 1996 and just six states participated in the lottery, these were Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia.
The game saw huge growth in 1997 leading to a Tuesday draw to be added to the existing Friday draw back in February 1998. At round the same time more numbers were added to the lottery to create bigger jackpots and then in January 1999 the cash option was added for players as an alternative to the annuity payments option.
The following May New Jersey joined the Mega Millions Lottery taking the total participating states up to seven. In May 2002 the lottery became known as the Mega Millions Lottery and New York and Ohio joined the lottery taking the total states up to nine. Prize money was changed to bring even more excitement to players.
Then, that September Washington became the tenth state to join the lottery closely followed by Texas and California making the Mega Millions Lottery the most widely played multi-state lottery game.
More recently in March 2007 the Mega Millions Lottery made history again as the lottery produced a $390 million jackpot, a record for North America and since then jackpots have regularly topped $300 million and the game has become the one we know today.
You can play the Mega Millions Lottery in any of the participating states or online from anywhere in the world by clicking the easy play link above.
Page Last Updated: 18/06/2010 14:06:19
