Jackpot

The Powerball jackpot reached an estimated $250 million, after no winner emerged from Saturday night's drawing. The cash value is $166.8 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The game is played in 42 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands. The most recent big winner in Maryland was a couple who bought the winning $128.8 million at a family-owned restaurant and liquor store in Cecil County last Christmas Eve. That was the second-largest winning ticket ever sold in the state, according to the lottery.

Saturday's Powerball jackpot has rolled up to $214 million after a $50 million Delaware winner in early October. The last Maryland winner of the Powerball jackpot was a Cecil county couple who won $128.8 million on Christmas eve. That was the second-largest winning ticket ever sold in the state, according to the lottery. The first Powerball win in Maryland was by an Abingdon couple in September, 2011. They claimed $108.8 million. The winners of all those big payouts have remained anonymous, according to the lottery website.

As Maryland politicians wrangle over holding a special session to expand gambling, the state's newest casino surged out of the gate, reporting revenue of more than $1 million a day in its first month. Gambling operations at Maryland Live Casino brought in $28.5 million during the facility's first 25 days, or nearly 70 percent of the state's total gaming revenue in June, the Maryland Lottery announced Tuesday. The operation's gross gambling revenue was $359.27 per day per machine — a figure that lottery director Stephen Martino expects to decline in the coming months.

A Westport woman who works at an area McDonald's is saying she has Friday's winning Mega Millions ticket. Mirlande Wilson told the New York Post that she has the ticket, that she bought it at the Milford Mill 7-Eleven, and plans to claim her huge winnings later today. She says she also played a team pool with some of her McDonald's co-workers but that ticket wasn't the winner -- just one she played on her own. “We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The 'winning' ticket]

The great mystery of Maryland's Mega Millions winner remained unsolved Monday morning. Lottery officials said the winner had yet to come forward, but they have been "inundated" by rumors about the unknown winner. They countered claims in some publications that a likely winner had been identified as a Westport woman who worked at an area McDonald's. "As anticipated, we're still waiting," said Carole Everett, lottery spokeswoman. "We do not expect this woman to come walking through the door this morning.

Maryland lottery officials were inundated Monday with nonstop calls fueled by rumors about the identity of the Baltimore County shopper who will share in the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot. "Everyone says they know who the winner is," said lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett. "It's their cousin. It's a person who works at their doctor's office. It's the guy up the street who mows the lawn. We're not going to chase gossip. " Lottery officials say they've heard about 15 tall tales associated with the identity of the person who bought the winning ticket for Friday's drawing at a 7-Eleven in Milford Mill.

Are you rich beyond your wildest dreams? The winning numbers for the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot are: 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 and Mega Ball 23. If no winner is named, the jackpot will rise to $975 million, but lottery officials said they would know if someone had won before the night is through. All week, Baltimore has been abuzz about the record-breaking jackpot and on Friday the excitement peaked. On his way out the door at the 7-Eleven on W. 33 r d Street and Keswick Road on Friday, a man looked over his shoulder and told Sara Mathes that he'd wish her luck on Mega Millions, but, you know, "I want to win. " Mathes of Charles Village and her friend, Jessica Vezendy of Middletown, Del., were part of the frenzy across Maryland for a chance at the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, which grew by $100 million since Thursday.

Maryland sold one of the winning tickets for last night's record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, lottery officials said. The lucky ticket was purchased around 7:15 p.m. Friday at a 7-Eleven in Baltimore County in the 8000 block of Liberty Road in Milford Mill. The winner bought one ticket with randomly selected numbers just a few hours before sales ended. The jackpot is considered the single largest in world history, according to lottery officials. The Maryland winner will split the prize with winners in Kansas and Illinois, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Even a lottery official, a woman who spends her days dealing in hundreds, thousands and, yes, millions, was having a hard time Thursday getting her head around this monstrous number: $540 million. "It's hard to even fathom this kind of money," said Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett as the jackpot for Friday's Mega Millions drawing, already high, soared yet higher, breaking records. "It's insane. It's all that anyone is talking about. Everywhere," she says. It's true.

Lottery officials Thursday raised the record-setting Mega Millions jackpot even higher — to $540 million. "It's breaking the record that already broke records," said Carole Everett, communications director for the Maryland State Lottery. Representatives from 42 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands decided to raise the jackpot from its previous high of $500 million during a conference call this morning, Everett said. "Everybody's excited," she said. "It's all people are talking about.