With rolling jackpots starting at $12 million, Mega Millions is more exciting than ever! To play, choose five numbers from the first field of 56 numbers and one Mega Ball number from the second field of 46 numbers. I wanted to calculate the odds of getting all 5 numbers and the Mega Ball. 1/(56!/51!*5!) * 1/46 => 1/3,819,816 * 1/46 = 1/175,711,536 Am I doing something wrong? Those seem like really crappy odds. 2. Originally Posted by downthesun01 With rolling jackpots starting at$12 million, Mega Millions is more exciting than ever! To play, choose five numbers from the first field of 56 numbers and one Mega Ball number from the second field of 46 numbers.

I wanted to calculate the odds of getting all 5 numbers and the Mega Ball.

1/(56!/51!*5!) * 1/46 => 1/3,819,816 * 1/46 = 1/175,711,536

Am I doing something wrong? Those seem like really crappy odds.
You think? What ballpark were you expecting the answer to be in!? (Your answer is totally correct, by the way).

3. Thanks for the quick response. I guess I was a bit surprised because another state lottery we have in Texas has odds of about 1/28,000,000 with an initial jackpot that starts at \$4 million USD.

It just seemed odd that they'd make it almost 7 times harder to win a jackpot that's only 3 times more.

Thanks again for the quick response.