COLUMBUS — If everyone in the country bought a ticket for the first Mega Millions drawing, there probably would be only two winners.

        That's one way of looking at the very long odds of winning the jackpot in this new multistate lottery, which will replace the Big Game when Ohio joins with New York and seven other states in May. The first drawing will be May 17.

        Lawrence Gilligan, a University of Cincinnati mathematics professor, compared the population of the United States, 280 million, with the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, 1 in 135 million.

        “You are 27 times more likely to be killed by lightning next year than win that lottery,” he said.

        Long odds or not, Ohio Lottery officials say Mega Millions will be a big hit.

        “We really feel we have the premier game in the country,” said Mardele Cohen, an Ohio Lottery spokeswoman.

        Besides a name change, the starting jackpot will double to $10 million and odds of winning, which were 1 in 76 million in the Big Game, will nearly double.

        Those higher odds should help create an average Mega Millions jackpot of $80 million, lottery officials estimate.

        In contrast, the odds of winning Ohio's Super Lotto Plus jackpot, which will be at a record $70 million for Saturday night's drawing, are 1 in 14 million.

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