The summer of big lottery jackpots continues tonight, with 1.58 billion dollars (before taxes) up for grabs for anyone with the winning combination of five numbers plus the Megaball.
While the odds of pulling the winning number are shockingly low (1 in 302,575,360 for Tuesday night’s drawing), that didn’t stop hundreds of patrons at the Wisconsin State Fair from swinging by the Wisconsin Lottery booth in the Exposition Center to pick up their slips.
The common theme when asked what drew them to grab a ticket: why the heck not?
“I think it’s an all-around good deal, especially with the tax revenue that the state makes.” said Scott from West Bend. “You can’t win if you don’t play.”
“Once you hit the 500 mil number on up, you just kind of have to try and go for it.” concurs Kaitlyn Andre from Oshkosh.
Each prize winning over 2,000 dollars is subject to a 7.65% state tax that the State of Wisconsin receives directly from the jackpot; that would be 120,870,000 dollars if a Wisconsin resident collected tonight’s big prize.
There have been 31 drawings since the last Mega Millions jackpot was claimed. If the winner were to take the lump sum option on the grand prize tonight, they would win 783.3 million dollars of the 1.58 billion before taxes were applied.
