Blank forms for the Mega Millions lottery sit in a bin at a local grocery store, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Itโs only the third time a lottery jackpot has grown so large, but much has changed since the last time such a big prize was up for grabs in 2018.
After a peak in October 2018, Medenica said sales of the big lottery games dropped about 50%, prompting talk among lottery officials about jackpot fatigue.
Sales of Mega Millions and Powerball continued to decline after the virus hit along with other lottery games, but while scratch tickets and other instant games rebounded strongly later in the year, national game sales remained moribund.
Itโs hard to fathom how unlikely it is to beat odds of one in 292.2 million for Powerball or one in 302.5 million for Mega Millions.