Over 2 million people in Massachusetts have signed up for a chance to win either the $1 million prize or the $300,000 college scholarship from the state, officials said.
The first in a series of 10 big prizes was drawn Monday as part of Massachusetts' VaxMillions giveaway, Gov. Charlie Baker said.
More than two million people had signed up as of the registration deadline Thursday, according to Gov. Charlie Baker's office, for a chance to win either a $1 million prize -- for vaccinated adults -- or the $300,000 college scholarship for vaccinated kids 12-17.
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"The names have been pulled, they're currently being vetted and we'll make the announcement on Thursday," Baker told reporters Monday.
To be eligible for the drawings -- the first of which was Monday, with the announcement of the winners coming three days later, on Thursday -- participants must have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and have registered by July 22. Anyone who hasn't yet signed up can do so to be eligible for the remaining drawings. See the VaxMillions deadlines here.
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If you did sign up for Monday night's drawing, you don't need to be too lucky: adults have better than a one-in-two-million chance to win a million dollars Monday night.
As of Friday afternoon, 2,124,872 people had signed up for the VaxMillions drawing, including 1,989,986 adults and 134,885 between the ages of ages 12-17, according to Baker's office. Those numbers indicate that about half of all people eligible to win haven't signed up, since 4.3 million people in total have been fully vaccinated in Massachusetts and no one under 12 is yet approved to be vaccinated.
Since five fully vaccinated adults will each win one $1 million prize, the number of people currently signed up suggest a 1 in 397,986 chance of winning, while those under 18 have a 1 in 26,977 chance.
For context, both sets of odds are much better than the 292,201,338 to 1 odds of winning the Powerball grand prize or 302.5 million to 1 odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot.
Still want to get in on the action? Fully vaccinated residents can enter the drawing at VaxMillionsGiveaway.com. For residents who do not have internet access or need assistance, there is a call center available to assist with registration. You can reach the call center by calling 211 during the following hours:
- Monday to Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Live call center workers will be available in English and Spanish, and an additional 100 languages will be available through translators.
