PHOENIX (October 24, 2018) -  South Carolina may have won last night’s record $1.6 billion dollar Mega Millions jackpot, but we are all winners as the Arizona Lottery is already seeing huge returns on the enormous ticket sales generated by this unprecedented top prize.

Those returns are expected to continue growing as tonight’s Powerball jackpot of $620 million is the third-highest in the game’s history and the sixth-largest in U.S. lottery history!

Looking at both jackpots, totaling $2.22 billion, the run of these games (July 25 to October 23 for Mega Millions; August 12 to today for Powerball) has generated a combined total in Arizona of more than $75 million in sales, over $5 million in commissions to our valued retailers and $16.5 million in return to our beneficiaries.  In fact, this is already enough to fully fund our FY19 obligation to several of our beneficiaries! 

“This is great news for all of Arizona as we are all winners with the Lottery,” Executive Director Gregg Edgar said, “Money raised, through Lottery ticket sales, goes to fund 18 beneficiaries that provide important programs for the people of Arizona.  These include the Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, who speak for abused and neglected children in court, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Heritage Fund, preserving and protecting our state’s unique wildlife for future generations.”

We at the Lottery also congratulate our winners in last night’s record Mega Millions game.  330,752 winning tickets were sold.  These include seven $10,000 prizes in Flagstaff, Kingman, Littlefield, Fredonia, Yuma, Tempe, and Phoenix, and one million-dollar prize in Chandler.  All prizes won in Arizona in last night’s draw total $2,299,052!