The estimated payout for the MegaMillions Lottery on Friday is $476,000,000, the highest payout ever for MegaMillions.

Does it make mathematical sense to buy a ticket today?

From the How To Play website:

Interesting stat in the news article that allows you to figure out how many tickets were sold for the last drawing:

The odds of winning any of the Mega Millions prizes are approximately 1 in 40.

The estimated jackpot is based on national sales up to the time of the drawing. In the last drawing, in which there was no jackpot winner, almost 2.9 million tickets won Mega Millions prizes.