Mega Millions jackpot jumps to $940 million after no winner
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Mega Millions jackpot was closing in on $1 billion after no ticket matched all six numbers in Tuesday night’s drawing.
The jackpot reached an estimated prize of $940 million — with a $483.5 million cash option — for the next drawing on Friday, Jan. 6.
Since the game began in 2002, there have been just three larger jackpots than Friday’s estimated prize, lottery officials said.
The Mega Millions record remains at $1.537 billion, won by a single ticket in South Carolina in October 2018.
Tuesday night’s Mega Millions numbers
FILE IMAGE - A person buys a Mega Millions lottery ticket at a store on July 29, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
The numbers drawn on Tuesday were: 25, 29, 33, 41, 44 and gold Mega Ball 18.
Six tickets matched the five white balls to win $1 million.
Three of those tickets, sold in Arizona, Mississippi, and South Dakota, included the optional Megaplier (4X), worth $4 million each.
How to play Mega Millions, odds of winning the jackpot
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.
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.
This story was reported from Cincinnati.