California State Lottery to be confused with the gold-colored ball in Mega Millions, which also is known as the "Mega Number".) The California Lottery has offered a number of jackpot games, beginning with its "6-49" game in 1986, which became a 53-number game (drawing a seventh, "bonus" ball) in 1990, then changed again, to a 51-number game. The current variant, 5/47 + 1/27, began in 2000. On February 16th, 2002, the California Lottery's then-highest payout of $193 million was split by three tickets. Other big jackpots include $141 million dollars on Saturday June 23rd, 2001 that was won by one ticket, a $122
National Lottery (Ireland) the jackpot reached £1.7 million for the May 1992 bank holiday drawing. A 28-member Dublin-based syndicate, organized and headed by Polish-Irish businessman Stefan Klincewicz, had spent six months preparing by marking combinations on almost a quarter of a million paper playslips. In the days before the drawing they tried to buy up all possible combinations and thus win all possible prizes, including the jackpot. The National Lottery tried to foil Klincewicz's plan by limiting the number of tickets any single machine could sell, and by turning off the terminals his ticket purchasers were known to be using heavily. Despite its