Mega Millions jackpot hits $1 billion mark after no winners in Friday's drawing
The Mega Millions jackpot crossed the $1 billion mark after no winning tickets were sold in Friday's drawing. It marks the fifth time in the game's history that the jackpot has reached $1 billion.
The winning numbers for Friday's estimated $940 million Mega Millions jackpot were 5, 10, 28, 52 and 63, and a Mega Ball of 18.
There has not been a Mega Millions jackpot winner since April 18. The next drawing, which comes with an estimated jackpot that currently sits at $1.05 billion, will take place Tuesday at 11 p.m. Eastern.
A single winning ticket for next Tuesday's jackpot would have had the choice of taking an estimated lump sum payment of $527.9 million before taxes, or going with the annuity option. That consists of an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that eventually equal the full jackpot minus taxes.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are approximately one in 302.58 million.
Since the last time there was a jackpot winner, at least 46 tickets matching all five white balls — which earns a prize of at least $1 million— have been sold, Mega Millions said.
A ticket sold in Pennsylvania which matched all five white balls won $5 million in Friday's drawing because it included a Megaplier, which can increase a non-jackpot prize by up to five times.
There have now been five Mega Millions jackpots north of $1 billion, with the largest being a $1.537 billion jackpot in October of 2018, claimed by a single winning ticket sold in South Carolina. In January, a winning ticket for a $1.348 billion jackpot was sold in Maine.
Last week, a single winning ticket was sold in downtown Los Angeles for the $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot, the sixth-largest in U.S. lottery history. The winner has yet to come forward to claim their prize.
The Los Angeles area has seen a string of lottery luck of late. The winning ticket for February's $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot, the largest in lottery history, was sold at a gas station in Altadena, a city in Los Angeles County.
Mega Millions tickets, which are $2 each, are sold in all states except Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada. They're also sold in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the game, half the proceeds from each ticket sold remain in the state where the sale occurred, with that money going to support "designated good causes and retailer commissions."
Drawings take place at 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays.
According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a trade group that represents the interests of all the major lotteries, each state determines which programs its lottery profits go towards. In California, for example, all lottery proceeds go to public education, which in the 2021-22 fiscal year amounted to about $2 billion.