With forty-two states, as well as Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands participating in the Mega Millions game, there are more people playing the game than any of the other mega jackpot games in the United States. With more people playing the game, the larger the jackpot can become. Just ask the three winning ticket holders that claimed the largest ever jackpot, a whopping $656 million.

With all that money on the line, what kinds of security measures are taken to ensure the Mega Million jackpot winner is legitimate? There are a number of security procedures that are performed for each of the two drawings held each and every week. To start, the game officials have a number of drawing machines and ball sets that are audited to ensure that each numbered ball has the same chance to be drawn. Once the ball set and drawing machine are selected, the lottery officials conducted rigorous tests to determine if there will be complete randomness of drawn balls at the time of the live drawing. All of these procedures are videotaped to ensure that none of the officials involved in the pre-game procedures do anything to rig the results. Finally, after approximately three hours, the process is completed and the equipment is secured with a limited number of people having access. All of this to ensure fair results for a drawing that will take less than sixty seconds to complete.