Quoted from TractorDoc:

The winnings went from one billion to one point six billion -- does that mean 600 million dollars was spent on lottery tickets over a span of a couple days?
That's almost like every person in the country buying one!

Quoted from Jarbyjibbo:

I would imagine these are border towns. Many in CA drive to NV or AZ border towns to buy their tickets since CA doesn't participate. A former CA resident and coworker was telling me about it yesterday.

Quoted from Jarbyjibbo:

That is an astounding revelation, thank you for that clarification. Clearly I was..... oh wait who gives a shit.....

Quoted from steviechs:

participating
Fun (or discouraging) facts:

There are over 302 million possible combinations of numbers
Something like 280 million tickets were sold for last Friday's drawing. Assuming everyone that played bought 20 tickets each, thats 14 million people who thought they were going to win.
There have been 24 or 25 Mega millions drawings since the last time someone won it all

Some of the anonymous trust names of previous winners are pretty funny:

$142 million won by the ABC XYZ Trust with a ticket purchased in Moraine, Ohio
$451 million won by Secret 007, LLC, of Port Richey, Fla.
$49 million won by the It Will Buy Me a Boat Revocable Trust of Rockwall, Texas
June 27, 2014 - $33 million won by the 6-27-14 Revocable Trust of Houston, Texas

Quoted from Erik:

Negating the mental entertainment value, by my rough estimation at the current odds it makes mathematical sense to buy 2-3 tickets.

Quoted from xsvtoys:

The name thing change won't work, its been tried Your last idea about saying you won only a million is pretty good. But it still won't work. Everyone will know the winning ticket was bought in your area, they will figure out it was you.