$1.1 billion: Mega Millions jackpot climbs again, 2nd-highest prize in game history
CHICAGO - The Mega Millions jackpot topped $1 billion this week — and continues to grow — ahead of Friday night’s drawing. It now stands as the second-highest prize in the game’s history, as currently estimated.
The lottery grand prize on Thursday reached an estimated $1.1 billion with a $648.2 million cash option after hitting $1.02 billion on Wednesday.
Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is also the nation’s third-largest lottery prize ever. A $1.586 billion Powerball game in 2016 was split between the buyers of three winning tickets, and a $1.54 billion Mega Millions prize in 2018 went to the buyer of a single ticket.
The latest jackpot has grown so large because no one has matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner.
FILE - A customer's Mega Millions come out of the lottery printing machine at the 7-Eleven on Chino Hills Parkway in Chino Hills on July 27, 2022. (Photo by Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)
Tuesday night’s numbers, which were 07-29-60-63-66, and the Mega Ball 15, did bring some second and third prize winners.
Nine tickets matched the five white balls to win the Mega Millions second prize of $1 million, including two each in New York and New Jersey, and one each in California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
The winning ticket sold in Ohio was worth $3 million because it included the optional Megaplie, a $1 extra purchase available in most states, which was 3X Tuesday night.
The next drawing is Friday, July 29 at 11 p.m. ET.
What are the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot?
FILE - A customer's Mega Millions come out of the lottery printing machine at the 7-Eleven on Chino Hills Parkway in Chino Hills on July 27, 2022. (Photo by Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)
Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET. Five white balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 70, and one gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 25. Players win if the numbers on one row of a ticket match the numbers of the balls drawn on that date.
Mega Millions tickets cost $2 per play. Players win the jackpot by matching all six numbers in a drawing. If no one wins the jackpot, the money is added to the jackpot for the next drawing.
For those lucky enough to become a Mega Millions jackpot winner, they get the choice of a cash option or an annual payout. The annuity option means getting an initial payment followed by 29 annual payments, and each payment is 5% larger than the previous one. For those that select the cash option, they receive a one-time, lump-sum payment that is equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool after taxes.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot prize is roughly 1 in 302,575,350, lottery officials said. But a player’s overall chance of winning any prize is 1 in 24.
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This story was reported from Cincinnati.