Playing the Mega Millions Lottery Part 1: Avoid the Traps and Scams

You're about to buy a Mega Millions lottery ticket. Somebody will win the jackpot, you think, so why not you? You look for an edge, a strategy for picking those winning Mega Millions numbers. Mega Millions related websites are ready to sell you numbers likely to win, or at least a way to pick winning numbers. You can already see yourself a brand new Mega Millions millionaire. But before you buy that Mega Millions lottery ticket, you should know some things.

The Mega Millions lottery and so-called services around it can scam you out of your money. You can easily avoid Mega Millions lottery traps once you know how. For the best free Mega Millions lottery tips and strategies see Part 2 of this series. But first, what are the Mega Millions traps?

Rules of the Mega Millions lottery

The Mega Millions lottery rules are simple. Pay $1.00, pick five different numbers from 1 to 56, and one more number, the Mega Ball, from 1 to 46. Match the six winning numbers and win the Mega Millions jackpot.

Match five numbers but not the Mega Ball and you win the second prize, $250,000. Match four of the five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win $10,000. All other prizes are $150 or less. Outside California the size of all Mega Millions lottery prizes except the jackpot are predetermined.

Mega Millions lottery trap #1: The odds are stacked against you, more than you imagine

Mega Millions, like every other lottery, is designed to make money for whoever is running it. Over the long term only the operator is guaranteed to make money. The average payout of a drawing the week after someone won the jackpot can be as little as $0.25 per Mega Millions ticket, though the Mega Millions lottery official website claims $0.50 of every dollar wagered is paid out in prizes.

Mega Millions says your odds of winning are 1 in 40. However, on average, for each 40 tickets ($40) your winnings will be $10 or less 99.986% of the time. Your odds of winning $150 are less than 1 in 7250. You have less than 1 chance in 580,000 of winning one of the top 3 prizes. The odds against your winning the Mega Millions jackpot are more than 175 million to 1.