California Lottery Jackpot Hits Half-Billion Dollars

The California Lottery Mega-Millions game has a half billion-dollar jackpot for Friday night’s draw. Let that roll around on your tongue for a while. Half a billion dollars. $500 million. A whole lotta cash. Any way you phrase it, if you win the jackpot you better learn how to say “new tax bracket.”

The big jackpot could mean instant financial security for some lucky person and a chance at some serious philanthropy.

You can buy Mega-Millions tickets at about 100 locations in Gilroy and neighboring South County cities. This website can help you find a store close by.

Of course, the chances of winning are slim. Really slim.

AOL's Daily Finance compared the odds of winning California's Super Lotto Jackpot—that's 1 in 18 million—with some other activities:

• Getting pregnant from a one-night stand: 1 in 20
• Getting struck by lightning: 1 in 10,000
• Dying in an airplane crash: 1 in 355,318
• Being dealt a royal flush in a given hand of poker: 1 in 655,750
• Dying from a flesh-eating bacteria: 1 in 1 million.

On average, adults in California drop $108.77 on the Lottery each year. That may sound like a lot, but the state actually ranks 35th in the nation for Lottery spending. Massachusetts eclipses most states with $860.70 spent, on average, per adult each year.

Stats aside, it's fun to dream. If you won, what would you do with the money? Furthermore, if a Watsonville resident wins the jackpot Friday, what would you like that person to do for our area? Tell us in the comments.