Mega Millions lottery pool? Mass. lawyer says take these precautions before diving in

BOSTON — Your dreams of becoming a billionaire could become a reality on Friday night if you have the winning Mega Millions numbers.

The next Mega Millions drawing is tonight, and the jackpot is worth $1.15 billion. That would be a cash payout of $516.1 million.

If someone does match all six numbers in the Friday drawing, it will be the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

Out of the last nine top Mega Millions jackpots, none of the winning tickets have been in Massachusetts.

Mega Millions said the jackpot has only been won three times this year.

The last time was back in September in Texas, a winner in Illinois took home the money in June, and the other winning jackpot ticket was sold in New Jersey in March.

Michael Baker is a Massachusetts State Lottery lawyer.

If you’re playing with a pool of people, make sure you have an agreement as to what tickets are part of that pool, Baker advised.

“If you bought tickets separately, understand whether those are treated separately or part of the group. Keeping the ticket secure is going to be important and probably also signing it, just in case it does get misplaced,” Baker explained.

Baker added, “Someone needs to claim the ticket, so we often provide a service of claiming the ticket on behalf of someone else. Most of our winnings are, you know, I haven’t had to claim a billion-dollar ticket. But, you know, we have claimed multi-million-dollar tickets and anything down to $100,000 of people who just want to keep that winning private and be able to share with who they decide to share the ticket and that winnings with.”

Baker added, “There’s no rush to cash it right away so you can take your time in claiming the ticket. Even if you walked into the lottery the next day, they’re usually pulling this money for multiple states.”

The drawing is tonight, Friday, Dec. 27, at 11 p.m.

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