Mega Millions Soars Past $300m Jackpot, DoJ Still onto Lotteries

For a third consecutive December, the Mega Millions jackpot has exceeded $300 million, with 7 more draws to go before 2019 is out.

Mega Millions Jackpot Builds Past $300m Mark Again

Mega Millions jackpot has hit $300 million in unclaimed ready cash waiting to be dished out to a lucky winner. So far as Christmas miracles go, this one could be one of the biggest. This is the third December in a row that the jackpot broke past the record benchmark, setting at $314.

With the next drawing due on Tuesday, December 10, there is still time to purchase a ticket. In 2017, the Mega Millions jackpot crossed the threshold and activity picked up during the Christmas holidays.

#MegaMillions has just blown past the $300M mark – the jackpot for Tuesday is an amazing $314 MILLION! 👀 💵#SaturdayThoughts #SaturdayMorning #SaturdayMotivation #SaturdayNight #lottery #lotterywinner pic.twitter.com/fjtwt1gcm8

— Mega Millions (@MegaMillionsUS) December 7, 2019

By January 5, 2018 when the jackpot fell, the pot had grown to $451 million. If the Tuesday draw fails, there will be seven more opportunities for the jackpot to fall in the coming weeks before 2019 is out.

The 2018 winner was an anonymous individual in Port Richey, Florida. Then, the December jackpot quickly soared to the whopping $437 million and was won in 2019 by 23 co-workers in Long Island, New York.

Mega Millions has built up to more significant numbers throughout the years. The seventh-largest pot was won on June 7, 2019 when a ticket bought in San Diego secured the whopping $522 million.

Multi State Lotteries in the United States

Lotteries have been one of the first form of gambling allowed in the United States. After UIEGA 2006 was enforced, the State of New York petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to determine whether any form of cross-border data exchange would violate UIEGA.

At the time, New York was given the greenlight and cross-border lotteries continued to operate at full blast. Mega Millions is the most popular lottery in the U.S. with the jackpot starting at $40 million and various other prizes dished out and ranging between $1 million and $2 million.

Most of the jackpot winner names have been kept as per their own request. The largest pot of money won to date off the lottery was $1.537 billion.

New Hampshire Lottery Against the DoJ

While most lottery activities have been going as usual across the U.S, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been trying to enforce a new interpretation of the Wire Act 1961 prohibiting online data exchange.

The purpose of the latest Wire Act interpretation is to effectively snuff out any attempts to promote online gaming products, whether this is the lottery or casino. However, the New Hampshire Lottery has remonstrated against what it considered a frivolous interpretation of the text.

New Hampshire won a case against the DoJ earlier this year, with a District Judge agreeing that the texts were too frivolous and they opened otherwise legal business to legal prosecution.

Mega Millions on the Line

The DoJ interpretation and success in the matter is equally important for cross-state lotteries, including Mega Millions, Powerball and Cash4Life, to name a few. If the DoJ gets its way, lotteries may effectively become illegal.

In their present structure, lotteries have been organized with servers across state-borders, which will effectively breach the ruling of the DoJ and subject owners and private parties to criminal prosecution.

Lotteries might need to choose between shutting down completely or losing millions of dollars, which could make their model unsustainable and jackpots far less attractive.