New Year and Lady Luck - Mega Millions Vs. Powerball

Mega Millions and Powerball are  two biggest multi-jurisdictional lottery games in the US.  They both offer in 44 states, the District of Columbia and US Virgin Islands.  Mega Millions is drawn on Tuesday and Friday while Powerball has Wednesday and Saturday.

The largest jackpot for Mega Millions history was $1.537 billion for October 23, 2018 drawing.  For Powerball, the record was $1.58 billion in Jan 2016. 

Due to different drawing combinations, Mega Millions has the wining odds of 1 in 258,890,850.  Powerball has the winning odds of 1 in 292,201,338.     In comparison, the Super Lotto Plus, a California's lottery game has the winning odds of 1 in 42 millions.

The number of jackpot winners found in certain states are higher than the others:

State                        Jackpot Winners                % of Total Jackpot Winners

Indiana                                 39                                          10.5%
Missouri                               31                                             8.3%
Minnesota                            22                                            5.9%
Kentucky                              18                                            4.8%
Pennsylvania                       18                                            4.8%
Louisiana                             17                                             4.6%
Wisconsin                            16                                            4.3%
Arizona                                 13                                            3.5%
Florida                                  12                                            3.2%
Washington DC                   11                                               3%
Kansas                                  11
New Hampshire                  11
Nebraska                              10                                             2.7%
Delaware                              10
New York                             10                                         
Iowa                                       9
New Jersey                           8                                              2.2%
Connecticut                          8
California                              8
Rhode Island                        8
West Virginia                       8


The rest of the statistics is listed in the following link

https://www.powerball.net/winners


Powerball so far has 364 jackpot winners.  Mega Millions despite better odds, only has 200 jackpot winners.   The current Mega Millions jackpot is at $348 million.  Powerball latest winning drawing was for $294 millions.   A single winning ticket was sold at a gas station in Brooklyn, NY.