Watch Mega Millions $159 Million Drawing Live Online: Find Out If You Won Jackpot Right Here

Watch live online to find out instantly if you have won the largest Mega Millions lottery jackpot since one lottery player in Illinois hit all six numbers for a $265 million payout. In fact, the Friday, May 15, jackpot is the largest offered in the United States, since a Powerball jackpot of $564 million was won on February 14.

The top jackpot for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing will be $159 million, with a “cash value” — for a winner who chooses to take the jackpot in one lump sum rather than in annual payments over the next 30 years —of $95 million.

For information on how to watch Friday’s Mega Millions drawing live online, see the bottom of this article. The drawing takes place at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time, 7:59 Pacific.

The last time anyone won the Mega Millions drawing at all was March 24, when a $59 million jackpot was given away — shared by a group of 16 co-workers from New York state. Since then, 15 Mega Millions drawings have come and gone with no big winner. But there have been only three Mega Millions jackpots awarded so far this year.

According to the Mega Millions lottery, while no one has hit the jackpot in about seven weeks, in that time the nationwide lottery game has seen 18.3 million total prizes, ranging from the lowest possible payout of just $1 — basically, a free Mega Millions ticket — to a second prize of $5 million, which was awarded twice.

The regular second prize in the Mega Millions game is $1 million, which is won when a player matches the first five numbers drawn, but misses out on the separate Mega Ball number. But when a player pays $2 for a ticket instead of just a single buck, the “Megaplier” option is activated.

That means the second prize is multiplied by a the factor represented by the number on a seventh ball — a number from one through five. The Megaplier “5” scenario applied to two tickets purchased in April.

Actually, the Megaplier number drawn in Tuesday’s Mega Millions lottery was also “5,” but no ticket matching the first five numbers was purchased with the Megaplier option activated.

While $159 million is, of course, a huge amount of money, it doesn’t even come close to cracking the list of the largest United States lottery jackpots of all time. Of the top 25 jackpots, the lowest was a Powerball jackpot of $314.3 million in 2007.

To watch the Friday, May 15, Mega Millions drawing live online, simply return to this Inquisitr page on Friday night. The drawing will be streamed in the video at the top of the page. Or, go to this link.

[Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]