No jackpot winner in the Friday, February 27 Mega Millions drawing but 18 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000
State governments of the United States
Mega Millions (initially called The Big Game Mega Millions as the successor of The Big Game) is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery game. The first (The Big Game) Mega Millions drawing was in 2002 (see below).
The minimum Mega Millions advertised jackpot is $15 million, paid in 30 graduated yearly installments, increasing 5% per annum (unless the cash option is chosen; see below for differences by state). The jackpot increases when there is no top-prize winner (see below for information on how the game's jackpot is funded).
State governments in the United States are those republics formed by citizens in the jurisdiction thereof as provided by the United States Constitution, with the original 13 states forming the first Articles of Confederation, and later the aforementioned Constitution. Within the U.S. constitution are provisions as to the formation of new states within the Union.
The Georgia Lottery is overseen by the government of Georgia, United States. Headquartered in Atlanta and run by the Georgia Lottery Corporation, the lottery takes in over US$1 billion yearly. By law, half of the money goes to prizes, one-third to education, and the remainder to operating and marketing the lottery. The education money funds the HOPE Scholarship, and has become a successful model for other lotteries, including the South Carolina Education Lottery.
Long unconstitutional in a highly conservative U.S. state, a government-run lottery was explicitly allowed in a 1992 constitutional amendment to Article I, Section II, Paragraph VIII of the Georgia State Constitution, approved in a referendum. The GLC was created by a separate bill in 1992 by the Georgia General Assembly, and then-governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, in the Lottery for Education Act (OCGA 50-27). Rebecca Paul, who began the Florida Lottery, then ran the Georgia Lottery for its first decade, before leaving to launch Tennessee Lottery in 2004.
The Pennsylvania Lottery is operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Lottery was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on August 26, 1971; two months later, Henry Kaplan was appointed as its first executive director. The Pennsylvania Lottery sold its first tickets on March 7, 1972 and drew its first numbers on March 15, 1972.
By Pennsylvania law, at least 40 percent of Lottery proceeds are required to be paid as prizes, with another 27 percent towards funding programs. Currently, the Pennsylvania Lottery exceeds these requirements, as 60.9 percent is paid as prizes, 29.9 percent to programs, 6.7 percent is paid as retailer and vendor commissions and 2.5 percent is consumed as operating expenses.