Mega Millions: What would you do if you hit $1.1B jackpot?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Over $1 billion could be yours if you guess the right numbers next Tuesday. After no one bought a winning ticket Friday, the Mega Millions jackpot is rising into the billions.
CBS Philadelphia spoke with some players ahead of Friday's game asking them what they would do if they won one of the largest Mega Millions prizes in history.
At Porter Beverage in South Philly, they're familiar with selling winning lottery tickets. A $2 million winning Powerball ticket was sold just last week.
"Might be a lucky store, hopefully it is," Fredo, a South Philly resident, said.
And some hope the store's luck will rub off on them to go down in American lottery history.
"I played last week," Fredo said. "It didn't hit. So hopefully this week I hit."
"I would love to hit it; I would really love to hit it," Louie, another South Philly resident, said.
But others are trying a different approach to winning big.
"I got ten across the street, ten here. I'm working my way around South Philly trying to find the right ticket," Jimmy, from South Philly, said.
If being a billionaire isn't your style, there's a cash payout option that's over $568 million before taxes.
"I'd buy a house. I would invest, buy a bunch of properties," Fredo said. "Invest first to make sure that money keeps coming in."
While some have an exact plan for the money.
"I'd disappear and go to Key West and hide out there so that's where I'd go," Jimmy said.
Others are waiting until they have the cash in hand before they decide what to buy.
"I have no idea till I get the money," Louie said. "Let me get it first, then I'll tell you."
Since the game started back in 2002, there have just been two larger jackpots in history, according to Mega Millions.
This past July, a ticket sold in Illinois won the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever, a whopping $1.337 billion.
Mega Millions' largest-ever jackpot was won in October 2018 in South Carolina. An anonymous winner took home $1.537 billion.
The largest lottery win ever came when a Powerball ticket sold in California hit a $2.04 billion jackpot.
