$3 million Mega Millions ticket sold in New York, Connecticut
NEW YORK - The Mega Millions jackpot climbed to $1.35 billion, the second-largest prize in the game’s history, after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night – but there was a $3 million winner in New York and Connecticut.
Winning numbers
The winning numbers drawn on Tuesday night were white balls 7, 13, 14, 15, and 18, plus the gold Mega Ball 9.
Three winning tickets, one each in Connecticut, Florida and New York, are worth $3 million.
There were 16 tickets from across the country that matched the five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize of $1 million. Three of them, one each in Connecticut, Florida and New York, included the optional Megaplier 3X, bumping up the winning ticket’s worth to $3 million each.
The other 13 winning tickets worth $1 million were sold in California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts (two), Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio (two), Oregon, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
The next drawing is Friday, Jan. 13 at 11 p.m. ET. According to lottery officials, the grand prize also comes with a $707.9 million cash option.
The only Mega Millions jackpot larger than Friday’s estimated prize is the game record of $1.537 billion, which was won in South Carolina in October 2018.
How to play Mega Millions
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.
Odds of winning the jackpot
Those lucky enough to become a Mega Millions jackpot winner 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.
Those who select the cash option 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.