From Eliott McLaughlin and Christine Romans
CNN
(CNN) — The Mega Millions jackpot is juicy, but thanks to new, longer odds, it’s entirely possible the payout could reach $1 billion by Christmas.
Nope, that wasn’t a typo — “b” as in “boy.”
When no winner was selected in Friday’s drawing, the jackpot rolled over to $550 million, the second-largest payout ever. It jumped again Monday to $586 million, with a cash payout of $316.5 million, said Tandi Reddick, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Lottery.
The total could easily increase again before Tuesday night’s drawing.
So, the real question is: What are the chances of winning?
Well, as CNN reported last week, you have a much, much better chance of being killed by an asteroid, and while those are long odds, they’re even longer than they were in early October.
That’s because on October 22, Mega Millions made it more difficult to take home the big prize. The odds, which were 1 in 176 million, are now 1 in 259 million.
This is a product of the lottery company increasing the pool of numbers to choose from. Previously, lottery players chose five numbers, ranging from one to 56. It’s now one to 75, but the sixth, gold ball has fewer numbers from which to choose, as the pool decreased from 46 to 15.
How many people have won since the new rules went into effect? Zero. And if that trend continues, lottery players could see their first 10-digit jackpot just in time for the holiday season.