Mega Millions

The borrowed pickup truck, a crack inching its way across the windshield, lumbered into the parking lot off Sunset Boulevard a little before noon on Thursday. Diana Delmuro parked illegally, grabbed her purse and dashed inside Silversun Liquor. She slapped a crinkled dollar bill on the counter. "Mega!" she said with a broad smile. "And make it a lucky one. " It's been a rough spell for Delmuro, 58, who lost her job a year ago and was diagnosed recently with diabetes. But through it all, she said, "God's been good to me. " And there have been suggestions of fresh wind in her sails - she lost 20 pounds and won a small civil court case that had been hanging over her head.

What would you do with $540 million if you win the Mega Millions lottery Friday? After you've chosen your numbers and bought a winning ticket , you need a strategy. As Rene Lynch on our Nation Now blog suggests, trust no one -- aside from your smartphone. Instead of blasting the news via Facebook or Twitter, probably the first thing you should do is sign that ticket, take a photo of it with your phone and then lock it away immediately! Here are some other ways your phone can help you be smarter about your new flush status.

Mega Millions mania is hitting the home stretch. The jackpot stands at a record $540 million for Friday night's drawing and is likely to soar even higher in the final hours. Here are six tips for getting in on the game, and what to do when you win big. Best of luck. 1) Get your Mega Millions tickets. Now. Waiting until the last minute can be problematic. The lottery is played in 42 states plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. The Mega Millions drawing takes place on Tuesday and Fridays at 8 p.m. PDT. But sales of the $1 tickets are cut off at different times in different places.

Mega Millions mania is here. The Mega Millions jackpot just keeps growing and growing: It's been weeks since anyone has been able to nab all five winning Mega Millions lottery numbers plus the all-important Mega Ball number. That means the Mega Millions jackpot keeps rolling over. The Mega Millions jackpot now stands at a record $476 million -- nearly half a billion dollars -- for Friday night's drawing. So buckle up, and prepare for three more days of Mega Millions mania.

Mega Millions' upcoming jackpot is one of the biggest ever -- $290 million -- and it's just going to get bigger in advance of Friday's drawing. No single ticket hit all the numbers in Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing, which is driving up the jackpot. Right now, the jackpot is at $290 million. If it were to stay there, it would go down in history as the eighth-largest haul since the game of chance began in 1996. But you can expect the Mega Millions jackpot to rise over the next three days as the country flocks to bodegas, 7-11s, gas stations and supermarkets with dollar bills in hand, dreaming of hitting it big. Mega Millions bills itself as the nation's biggest jackpot game.

Mega Millions' $290-million jackpot is up for grabs, and office workers across the country are no doubt pooling resources to buy a bunch of tickets. But how do you keep from getting swindled? It happens, you know. Just last week, a New Jersey jury found that construction worker Americo Lopes tried to scam his co-workers out of their share of a $38.5-million jackpot by slinking off with the winning ticket purchased as part of an office pool. You could avoid a similar fate by purchasing your own Mega Millions lottery ticket before Friday's drawing . But do you really want to be the only guy or gal standing on the sidelines when your co-workers win the jackpot?

The Mega Millions jackpot is still up for grabs at $290 million and counting, one of the biggest jackpots ever . You may have the numbers you're loyal to, but some of us are fairly random about it. As with everything, there's an app for that. If you're in one of the 42 states -- yes, California is one -- then you can take a chance. The game is simple, as Rene Lynch at the Nation Now blog explains : "Players pick six numbers from two different pools: The first five are numbers from 1 to 56, and the sixth is chosen from numbers 1 to 46. You win by matching all six numbers.

Just before opening his convenience store Saturday morning in Albany, N.Y., Steve Gallucci was met at the front door by a reporter with big news: Gallucci's shop had sold the lone winning ticket for the $319 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, among the largest ever. So like any lotto dreamer, Gallucci checked the two tickets he had bought from his store. Then he double-checked. No luck. "Well, I know for sure now it wasn't me," he said with a chuckle. But Gallucci won't walk away empty-handed.

When Mega Millions conducted its lottery drawing on Tuesday night, millions of "Lost" fans wondered, Haven't we seen those numbers before? On the television show, the character Hugo "Hurley" Reyes played the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 and ended up winning the $114-million jackpot. In real life, the lotto's selections for its $355-million prize ? 4, 8, 15, 25, 47 and the crucial "Mega ball," 42 ? included four of Hurley's numbers. According to the Mega Millions website, which reported receiving "unprecedented traffic" after the drawing, 41,763 people matched those four numbers, earning $150 apiece.