JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new tie, a pair of headphones, a scented candle, they’re all perfectly nice gifts, but none of them can top half a billion dollars.
Friday night’s Mega Millions jackpot -- the 11th largest in the lottery’s history -- could turn into the perfect early Christmas present for someone.
The cash option is just over $266 million, so not a bad gift at all, and for $2, a ticket is a cheap stocking stuffer too.
News4JAX spoke with some folks who already had plans for what they would do if they were the lucky winner.
“I would just take my time and go through it. I would not rush through it, but I would sure enough have a sweet time with it while it lasts,” Antonio Freeman said.
“I love music. I’ve always wanted to be famous. What I might do with it is invest in a studio and kind of shop some record labels,” Thomas Rowe said.
Juanita Felton was more on the practical side.
“I would definitely pay all my bills,” Felton said. “That would be one thing. Then I would help my family and get my dad all set up so he would not have to worry about anything for the rest of his life.”
There are a few ways to boost your odds of winning.
Consider playing some of the numbers that have proven to be the luckier ones, even though all the numbers are drawn randomly.
Those are: 17 -- 10 -- 14 -- 31 -- 4.
The most common mega ball is 22.
The caveat to that is if other people have that same strategy and pick the same numbers, the winners would have to split the prize money.
Another option is to buy more than one ticket.
Even though the odds of winning stand at 1 in a 303 million chance -- which is not great -- your chances of winning are technically higher with more tickets.
The drawing is at 11 p.m. Friday.