Mega Millions Mess Up: Host calls wrong number during live drawing
The next Mega Millions drawing is tonight, and hopefully they get it RIGHT this time. If you didn’t hear about this, it was a big deal. The last drawing was Tuesday, and the guy who announces each number read one of them wrong. He said the “Mega Ball” was a “six,” but it was really a NINE. The graphic they put up on the screen also said “six.” And it caused a huge headache for lottery officials. The Mega Millions website issued a statement the next day to clear things up. (The actual winning numbers were 15-19-20-61-70, and the Mega Ball was 9.) Luckily, they checked their system, and no one would have won the $86 MILLION jackpot anyway. There were no tickets with all five winning numbers AND the Mega Ball number six or nine. But a handful of people would have won $10,000 prizes with a six, and thousands of others would have won smaller amounts. Mega Millions is played in 45 different states.
The New York Lottery paused payouts and told people to hang onto their tickets. But Mega Millions called the nine version the “official result” and apologized for the confusion. So it doesn’t sound like they’re paying out the people with sixes, but it’s still not clear. Tonight’s jackpot is worth an estimated $99 million.