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Community Corner

Numbers For Multistate Mega Millions Game Are In

The estimated jackpot is $290 million, the largest since March 25, 2011, when it was $319 million, a California Lottery official said.

The numbers in Friday night's multi-state Mega Millions draw are 6, 17, 19, 20, 21 and the Mega number is 20.

The estimated jackpot is $290 million, the largest since March 25, 2011,
when it was $319 million, a California Lottery official said.

The drawing was the 17th since the last time a ticket with all six
numbers was sold.The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 175,711,536, according to the Mega Millions website.

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The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 40.

The Mega Millions game is played in 41 states, the District of Columbia
and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Buying tickets at a store where winning tickets have been sold in the
past will not increase a purchaser's chance of winning a jackpot, according to
University of Southern California mathematics professor Ken Alexander.

"The chance that a given place will sell a winning lottery ticket is
just related to how many tickets they sell,'' Alexander said.

However, players wanting a better chance to avoid sharing the jackpot
should choose numbers that aren't selected as often, Alexander said.

Lottery players frequently choose the date of their birthdays as one of their numbers, so numbers higher than 31 would be played less, he said.

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