The expansion of USA MegaMillions lottery in 2010 introduced this popular lotto game to much bigger audience and more importantly, opened the door for the accumulation of bigger jackpot prizes.
The Mega Millions consortium and Multi State Lottery Association (MUSL) agreed on October 13th 2009 to cross sell MegaMillions and Powerball lottery tickets in US lottery jurisdictions. Many lottery players referred to this combination of the 2 big American lotteries as the Mega Power Lottery.
On January 31st 2010 the new arrangement came into effect and 23 of the states that are members of Powerball lottery started offering Mega Millions tickets. In turn 10 MegaMillions members started selling tickets for Powerball lotto and gradually over a period of 5 months the number of members partaking in the cross sell expansion grew.
USA Mega Millions lotto is now played in 43 jurisdictions of the United States of America, while Powerball lottery is available in 44 and 42 state lotteries now offer lottery players the option of playing both games. Imagine winning a jackpot in both MegaMillions lottery and the USA Powerball lotto, now that would be a lottery dream come true!
Currently, only state of California member of consortium participating in MegaMillions lotto, that does not offer Powerball lottery tickets. On the other hand Florida and Louisiana are the only two Powerball lottery member states that don’t give their clients the option to buy Mega Millions lottery tickets.
Speculation is rife that the cross selling arrangement is a temporary measure. Many believe the two lotteries are exploring the possibilities of further expansion in a form of a merger between the two games. We will of course keep you posted as this would be huge news in the lottery world, a merger between American Mega Millions lottery and USA Powerball lotto would most likely give birth to the biggest lottery in the world, possibly even in the galaxy…