The Mega Millions jackpot is estimated at an all-time high for the game for Tuesday’s drawing of $1.55 billion. Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says big jackpots often lead to people pooling their money to buy tickets, and you need to keep a record to avoid issues.
“Write down everybody who was in your group how much they contributed and when they did it that way there’s not a question later about who was in and who was out,” she says. Neubauer says you should document the tickets to keep everyone in the loop. “Take pictures on your phone or photocopy the tickets before the drawing happens,” she says. “And make sure that everybody in the group has a copy of the tickets that were purchased for the group — again then there’s no question about what the tickets were what the numbers were that were on the tickets.”
If you are buying tickets for your group, you might want to take another precaution. “If you’re also buying tickets for yourself, you might want to consider buying them in two separate places — meaning going to one store for one purchase and another store for the others,” Neubauer says. “You just want it to be abundantly clear like here are the tickets for the group and here are the tickets that would be for me.”
There is one standard safety measure whether you buy tickets in a group, or just buy one for yourself. “If you are someone who wins a significant prize the first thing that we always tell people is sign the back of the ticket. That way it identifies the ticket and any prize you have won as belonging to you,” she says. Neubauer says all the tips for purchasing tickets in a group are on the Iowa Lottery’s website.
The Mega Millions cut off for buying tickets in Iowa is 8:59 p.m. Tuesday. The drawing is at 10 p.m.