Lottery Jackpot Alert: Mega Millions Hits $150 Million For Friday Drawing After 13 With No Winner

Lottery players take note: the Mega Millions jackpot swelled to $150 million after Tuesday’s drawing proved to be the 13th straight in the nationwide lottery game without a big winner — the second run in a row of at least 13 consecutive winner-less drawings as the jackpot shoots skyward.

Earlier this year, Mega Millions saw what appeared to be an unlikely flurry of jackpot winners, including a stretch between March 21 and April 8 when the jackpot was won three times in the space of six drawings.

But there has now been only one winner since June 27, a run of 29 Mega Millions lottery drawings. In the final Mega Millions drawing of June, a single ticket in Texas hit a $33 million jackpot — which at that time was the third winner in just 12 drawings.

The Mega Millions odds now appear to be evening out. That chances against winning the 44-state lottery are an astronomical 259 million to one, so a few long stretches with no winners, building to nine figure jackpots, were expected — and probably welcomed by lottery players who prefer the excitement of massive jackpot prizes.

Friday’s $150 million Mega Millions jackpot is the 13th-highest of 2014, but nine of those jackpots that topped $150 million came in a single run-up to the year’s largest jackpot in the Mega Millions game — a $400 million prize won on March 18.

That $400 million prize was the 7th-largest United States lottery jackpot ever won. The question now will be how long the current streak of winnerless drawings can continue. Based on recent history, the Mega Millions lottery will probably need another 10 or 11 drawings with no jackpot winner before it can top that $400 million mark.

There were two winners of the Mega Millions lottery second-prize on Tuesday, however. One of those tickets — matching the first five numbers but not the Mega Ball — was sold in Illinois, the other in Maryland. Each ticket is good for a not-too-shabby $1 million payout.

There were 27,292,194 tickets sold for Tuesday’s drawing, with that number expected to rise for the Friday Mega Millions lottery. On Tuesday, more than 1.7 million ticket were winners, with total prize money topping $10 million.

To find out of any of that cash belongs to you, check your October 7 Mega Millions ticket against the following numbers drawn at 10:59 pm in Atlanta, Georgia.

16 — 29 — 46 — 48 — 55 Mega Ball 2

A winner on Friday who chooses the “cash option,” rather than taking the jackpot spread over 30 annual payments, will take home $90 million, before taxes.