Big Game Jackpot Increases to $300 Million

ATLANTA – The jackpot in the multistate Big Game lottery drawing grew to $300 million Saturday.

None of the tickets sold for Friday's $220 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Big Money Ball. The next drawing will be Tuesday.

Forty-four second-prize winners won $150,000 in Friday night's drawing. There were 382 players who matched four of the five lotto numbers, plus the Big Money Ball number. Those tickets are each worth $5,000.

The winning numbers from Friday's drawing were: 6-13-14-17-41. The Big Money Ball number was 6. Players must match the first five in any order and match the Big Money Ball to win the jackpot.

Will Wasdin of Soddy Daisy, Tenn., crossed the state line to take a shot at the jackpot, buying his ticket at Favorite Market in Flintstone, Ga.

"It's the old get-rich-quick — the more the better," Wasdin said. "I've got just as much of a chance as anybody."

Still, that wasn't much of a chance. The odds of winning the Big Game jackpot were 1 in 76 million.

The $220 million jackpot, snowballing since early February, was the second-largest in Big Game history. The biggest — and a U.S. record — was $363 million, split by two winners in May 2000.

On Friday, retailers were swamped with customers buying the $1 tickets at the last minute.

"Even the ones who come in and don't know what the Big Game is, once they find out, they're buying tickets like mad," said clerk Donna Pophry at a 7-Eleven in Hamilton, N.J. "I'm buying them. My husband's buying them. Sales have been excellent."

If there had been a winning ticket, the winner would have had two options: the full $220 million, paid out over 26 years, or a one-time payout of $117 million.

Next month, the game will add New York and Ohio, make the odds even longer and change the name to Mega Millions. Promotions for the new game have advertised potential jackpots as big as $500 million.