New Mega Millions Underway After Virginia Glitch
Thursday November 2nd 2017A ticket mix-up in Virginia left some players with no chance of winning Mega Millions on Tuesday, as a new era for the game began following last week’s exciting changes. The participants affected by the mix-up have received an apology and been promised a refund.
Virginia Problems
Tuesday’s draw was the first to take place under the new Mega Millions rules, with players now required to select five main numbers from 1 to 70 and one Mega Ball between 1 and 25. However, a glitch in Virginia resulted in 323 tickets being sold under the old number matrix, when the main ball pool had numbers from 1 to 75 and the Mega Ball was selected from a choice of 15.
There were a total of 628 plays across the 323 tickets, and 182 of the lines included at least one number greater than 70. This meant the players could not win the jackpot. If Tuesday’s Mega Ball had been higher than 15, none of the 628 plays would have had a chance of winning.
John Hegarty, a spokesperson for the Virginia Lottery, tried to make amends before the Tuesday drawing by offering a refund and a replacement ticket. He said: "We've been working to get the word out to those Mega Millions players because it's important for every ticket to have the same chance of winning a prize. Even though relatively few people are impacted, we want them to know that all of those tickets can be refunded along with the price of a new ticket, and any prizes won will be honored."
Mega Millions Winners
The Mega Ball drawn on Tuesday turned out to be 12, along with the main numbers 6, 28, 31, 52 and 53. Nobody won the jackpot, which stood at its new minimum value of $40 million, but over 400,000 players snapped up prizes.
The big winners can now start to think about how they would like to spend their money, and perhaps splash out on some extravagant purchases. Wayne Harris, from Homer in New York, recently collected the $105 million jackpot he won on September 22nd and told lottery officials he ‘might buy a plane’.
Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot will be worth $48 million, and you can choose numbers online or go to an authorized retailer in one of the participating states to give yourself a chance of winning.
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