Did You Win The $363 Million Mega Millions Jackpot?
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The winning Mega Millions numbers were announced Tuesday night.
The winning numbers were 9, 19, 34, 44, 51 and the Mega Ball number was 24.
As ticket sales picked up, lottery officials bumped up the estimated top prize by $7 million to $363 million on Tuesday.
WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reports
Podcast
Tuesday's jackpot was one of the biggest in U.S. history. Two tickets in Georgia and New Jersey split the highest jackpot ever, worth $390 million, back on March 6, 2007.
Nobody matched the winning numbers for last Friday's jackpot of $290 million. Those numbers were 6-17-19-20-21 with a Mega Ball of 20.
1010 WINS' John Montone reports
Podcast
The pot had been growing since an Atlanta woman won $72 million in January. The odds of winning are about 1 in 176 million and if you take the lump sum, it would be around $255 million.
Lottery hopefuls flocked to the Little Silver Family Pharmacy, which just sold the winning power ball numbers, hoping to hit the Mega Millions jackpot.
"I drove about 20 miles and feel like this place is lucky," said David Zwollin of South River.
Twenty years ago, Frank Eulner won $2.3 million. He just got his last check.
CBS 2's Christine Sloan asked him if there's a special way to pick numbers, or some advice he can give. Eulner's secret: "Yeah, let the machine do it."
"My son helped me pick numbers, birthdays, things like that," said Robin Kirchberger of Ocean Park.
Doctor Thomas Lamatsch teaches research methods and statistics at Monmouth University. He and his colleague have looked into methods of picking winning lottery numbers.
"There is absolutely no strategy. You can pick your own numbers, have the computer pick your numbers, the chances of winning are right there on the lottery site. It's about one in 176 million," Lamatsch said.
That's the total number of combinations picking five numbers from one through 56 plus the mega ball.
For more information, visit www.megamillions.com.
What would you do if you won the lottery? Let us know below in our comments section...
