Mega Millions jackpot soars to $630M after no one won $555M top prize
There were no winning tickets sold for the $555 million Mega Millions jackpot that was up for grabs in a drawing Tuesday night, so Friday night's drawing will be for a pot of gold of at least $630 million, the lottery says. It would be the fifth biggest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
If there is a winner, the prize could be taken in annual payments over 30 years or as a lump sum of $359.7 million in cash, Mega Millions says — though the numbers are all but certain to grow as people flock to buy tickets.
Tuesday's winning numbers were 2, 31, 32, 37 and 70, with the last ball being 25.
There were four Match 5 winners Tuesday night, in Arizona, California, North Carollina and New Hampshire.
In 2022 alone, there have been three big jackpot wins, including $426 million in California in January, $128 million in New York in March and $110 million in Minnesota in April, Mega Millions said.
The biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever was a staggering $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina in 2018.
Jennifer Anderson, deputy director of the Colorado Lottery, told CBS News national lotteries like Mega Millions help individual states bring in revenue for outdoor recreation, open spaces, and, in most cases, schools.
"In many states, the most common is education, either in the form of scholarships and infrastructure in schools," Anderson said. "In Colorado we have returned over $3.8 billion for outdoor open spaces, recreation. We just bought two new state parks, and that's important because Colorado population continues to grow and it is outpacing the amount of open spaces we have for people recreating."