It has been 31 straight drawings for the Mega Millions jackpot without anyone matching the six numbers, and the jackpot has increased to an estimated $1.55 Billion for this Tuesday’s drawing.  

With its location just over the Utah border and right off the I-15, Malad City has long been one of Idaho’s most active lottery sales towns.  A steady stream of lottery traffic visits the range of gas stations at the top of the hill on any given day, but during times when a large jackpot is on the table, the increase in business is exponential.  Over the last few weeks, Maverik, Top Stop and KJ’s have all seen full parking lots and busy cash registers.  That feverish activity looks to continue at least through Tuesday.  

Although the hectic environment comes with little downtime, employees at KJ’s explained some of the upsides to lottery mania.  “Our sales definitely increase,” Rachel Green said.  “It’s been really busy.”

“We get to meet a lot of new people,” Angel Wright laughed.  “And teach them how to play the lottery,” she added.  According to employees, most of the customers purchasing tickets are from Utah, and often don’t have much experience with the game.

“Normally, we don’t play the lottery,” Stephanie Samuels from Ogden explained while waiting in line.  “But when it’s this high, you figure you got to try.”  That experience seems to be common, as a constantly moving line of people approach the cashier lines with questions about how to choose lines and what the different ticket types are.

Matching all five of the white balls and the separate Mega ball   has been calculated at 1 in 302.6 million, which does not seem to be a deterrent to those seeking the ultimate prize.  The one and a half billion dollar prize would be earned by a single winner (as opposed to several people picking the correct numbers, after which case the jackpot would be divided) who chose to take the 30 year annuity.  The single lump sum payment would work out to roughly $757.2 million.  All winnings would be subject to federal taxes, as well as state taxes on lottery payouts.

“It’s definitely busy,” Bryce Gibbs stated.  “But it’ll be nice when it’s over.”

The current record payout for the Mega Millions lottery occurred in October of 2018, and was for $1.537 Billion.  This year’s January drawing is the second highest, at $1.348 Billion.  It is therefore likely that this drawing will result in the largest winning ticket in the Mega Millions drawing’s history.  If a winning ticket is not drawn on Tuesday, that will almost certainly be the case.

So far during this run, 36 million winning tickets at non-jackpot levels have been sold, including those up to $5 Million in payouts.  

According to the lottery commission, half of the proceeds from ticket sales remain in the state where the tickets were sold, and support various causes and retail commissions.