Would you rather have $1 to spend, or $1.49 billion?
For winners in three states, all it took was a dollar to cash in and reap the rewards of Friday's record-setting Mega Millions jackpot. By picking the same winning numbers -- 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 with a Mega Ball of 23 -- they earned an equal share of the $656 million jackpot, which amounts to about $218 million each, before taxes, under the annuity option.
Lottery players dished out a cumulative $1,491,082,267 since the game's last big winner emerged in late January. Except for a few smaller payouts, all that worked out to next to nothing.