Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $910 million after no one wins top prize
(NEXSTAR) -- The Mega Millions jackpot climbed to an estimated $910 million after Tuesday night’s drawing produced no big winners, extending a stretch of bad luck dating back to April.
The numbers drawn were: 3, 5, 6, 44, 61 and the yellow ball 25
The absence of a winner for the estimated $820 million jackpot brings the count of fruitless drawings to 28, at least for the big prize.
The new $910 million prize is among the largest in U.S. lottery history and follows a $1.08 billion Powerball prize won by a player on July 19 in Los Angeles. California lottery officials haven’t announced a winner for that jackpot, which was the sixth-largest in U.S. history.
The largest U.S. jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize won in November 2022.
The largest U.S. lottery prizes:
- $2.04 billion (Powerball): Nov. 7, 2022; California
- $1.586 billion (Powerball): Jan. 13, 2016; California, Florida, Tennessee
- $1.537 billion (Mega Millions): Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina
- $1.348 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 13, 2023; Maine
- $1.337 billion (Mega Millions): July 29, 2022; Illinois
- $1.08 billion (Powerball): July 19, 2023; California
- $1.050 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 22, 2021; Michigan
- $910 million (est. Mega Millions): July 28, 2023
- $768.4 million (Powerball): March 27, 2019; Wisconsin
- $758.7 million (Powerball): Aug. 23, 2017; Massachusetts
Jackpots in the two lottery games grow so large because the steep odds make winning so unlikely, allowing the grand prize to roll over again and again. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
The game pays out many more smaller prizes, which start at $2. The overall odds of winning any prize is 1 in 24.
Two tickets for Tuesday’s drawing matched all five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize. One, sold in Texas, is worth $4 million because it included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 4X on Tuesday night. The other was sold in Maryland and won the standard $1 million prize.
The $910 million pot on the line Friday night will be that high only if a sole player wins and they choose to be paid through an annuity of one immediate payment and 29 annual allotments. But jackpot winners nearly always take the cash in a lump sum, which for Friday night’s drawing would be an estimated $464.2 million.
Regardless of which payout you select, how much money you actually take home will vary by state.
You may want to think twice before collecting the cash option though. Winners of giant jackpots nearly always take the cash, and financial advisers say that might be a mistake.
The next Mega Millions drawing will be at 11 p.m. ET on Friday. Tickets start at $2 each and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.