Mega Millions Jackpot Rises To $868 Million After No Big Winner

There was no lucky winner that hit the $667 Million Jackpot Tuesday night. That means that the drawing on Friday will be worth $868 million paid in installments or a lump sum of $494.5 million in cash, reports abc7ny. The Tuesday drawing had already hit all-time records as the second-highest in the history of the Mega Millions lottery.

The Tuesday prize was also the fourth-highest of any drawing ever, and the previous record for being the highest was $656 million — that big win was scored by three winners in three different states back in 2012.

On the other hand, the $868 million that’s up for grabs this Friday is the highest in the history that the multi-state lottery’s ever seen. What’s more, if you were to win Friday’s Mega Million jackpot, you would wind up with about $494 million after paying Uncle Sam.

The Mega Millions jackpot’s winning numbers Tuesday were 69, 45, 61, 3, 49, and the Mega Ball was 9. Although no ticket matched all the six numbers in the drawing Tuesday night, there were nine people who woke up as millionaires Wednesday after hitting five numbers in that drawing. Those winners are spread across the United States in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The ninth winner of the jackpot resides in Texas, and they won five million.

If you’re feeling extraordinarily lucky, Friday’s Mega Millions prize is not the only way you can win big, and the Powerball jackpot has grown to approximately $345 million — if you were to win both you’d take home more than $1.2 billion before taxes. Unfortunately, the odds of winning both have infinitesimal odds stacked against you, and the odds of winning just one of the jackpot games is one in several hundred million.

CNN reports that the jackpots have swollen to such epic proportions because no one has won either jackpot games for quite some time. The last time anyone won Mega Millions was on July 24, when a group of co-workers split the $543 million jackpot. The reason behind the Powerball jackpot’s ballooning size is that no one has won since August 11. That honor goes to a man from Staten Island, New York, who won $245.6 million.

Even though the combined win in Friday’s two jackpot games is a cool $1.2 billion, that sum is not the biggest jackpot in the history of the lottery. The combined cash prize record is a staggering $1.586 billion, and it was split between three different winners in 2016.

Odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot is 1 in 302,575,350. According to the Mega Millions website, the jackpots start at $40 million and will grow by a minimum of $5 million per draw each time the jackpot rolls. The jackpots for the Mega Millions will roll over if no one wins.

If you want to buy tickets for a chance to win the $868 Million in the Mega Millions lottery, they are sold for $2.00 a play. The lottery tickets are available for purchase in 44 states, Washington DC and the Virgin Islands.