are you feeling lucky? if so, today could be the day your bank account grows by a cool half billion dollars. can you imagine? tonight s mega millions jackpot is beyond ginormous. it could even get bigger giving the winner one of the best holidays in history. here s abc s linsey davis. reporter: move over, santa. millions are banking on mega millions to deliver their ultimate christmas gift this year. the $586 million jackpot is the second largest in mega millions history. if you are not in it, you can t win it. reporter: ever since mega millions changed the game decreasing the chances of winning, no one has won. since october 21st, there have
raised about $100 million from 2000 to 2010 with little going to help vets. and the mega millions jackpot is up to $586 million and could get bigger before tomorrow night. and if no one hits the jackpot by next week it could reach $1 billion by christmas. that is crazy. thanks very much. the ridiculist is coming up next. we ll be right back. [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to the winter event and get the mercedes-benz you ve always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease the 2014 e350 for $579 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. has a lot going on in her life. wife, mother, marathoner.
you ll find out why in a moment. a 17-year-old girl fighting for her life after one of the latest school shootings. i ll talk to her friends and classmate of the shooter. are you dreaming of a white christmas, the mega jackpot is $586 million. and you re more likely to hit a hole in one. and the top secret 9/11 report. talking about both is congressman lynch from massachusetts. thank you for joining me. you re heavily involved in both of these in different ways. about this nsa ruling today, how significant is it and how likely it will go to the very top of the legal system in america? i think it was a victory for the fourth amendment, piers. i think it s a logical conclusion, in terms of protecting our rights to unreasonable search and seizure.
at tant atlanta. start with the bad news. what are the odds of winning this jackpot, jonathan? reporter: the odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 259 million and still those odds are not keeping people away from this machine. all morning we ve been seeing people piling into this quick trip convenience store. and employees expect even more to show up as people get in from work. back in october the multi-state lottery added more choices to its matrix. what that did was increase your chances of winning some of the smaller prizes where you have a 1 in 15 chance but decreased your chances of winning the jackpot. but because the jackpot keeps rolling over and getting larger when ever someone doesn t win the drawing, we re seeing people coming into this atlanta store who shea they have haven t played the lottery in years but decided to come in today because the jackpot has gotten so big, jon. jon: i know you ve been talking to some of the people there about what they would do with, yo
cash, the lump sum. in this case, it s about $315 million. there was a time when there wasn t a choice between the lump sum or the annuitized prize. the big number we advertised the $586 million does assume you will take it over the 30 years. it s a personal choice. if you take the cash, you have a lot of money up front. i always say to those winners here in virginia that have been lucky enough to beat those long odds that you are an extremely lucky and fortunate person and i hope that you will be a good steward of this money and have it do good things for you and your family and causes that are important to you. we certainly had a lot of winners who have gone on to do great things with their lottery wins. yeah. i interviewed one last week actually won over $100 million.