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
Lottery on the player's ticket match those produced in the official drawing (regardless of the order in which the numbers are drawn), then the player is a jackpot winner. For such a lottery, the chance of being a jackpot winner is 1 in 13,983,816. In bonusball lotteries where the bonus ball is compulsory, the odds are often even lower. In the Mega Millions multi-state lottery in the United States, 5 numbers are drawn from a group of 75 and 1 number is drawn from a group of 15, and a player must match all 6 balls to win the jackpot prize.