Anticipation Grows Ahead of Historic $1.1B Mega Millions Jackpot Drawing

Mega Millions Jackpot Grows To $1.1B

For only the third time in the 20-year history of the American lottery game, the Mega Millions jackpot prize has reached the billon-dollar mark after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night according to a press release from Mega Millions.

Friday’s drawing will mark the 30^th in this jackpot run, which began on April 19^th and has left many wondering when the jackpot will eventually go! The Mega Millions jackpot has grown to an estimated, eye-watering $1.1bn should the annuity be taken but if a winner matches all six numbers drawn in the drawing on Friday, they also have the option to take a cash lump at an estimated $648.2m!

If the jackpot is won on Friday, it will be the second-largest in the game’s history, behind only the record $1.537bn won in South Carolina on October 23^rd, 2018 – the world’s largest lottery prize ever won on a single ticket! In the 29 drawings since the Mega Millions jackpot was last won in Tennessee on April 15^th, there have been over 28.1 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including forty-two $1m or more in 17 different states across the country. Four Mega Millions jackpots have been won so far this year, one in Canada, New York, Minnesota and another in Tennessee.

How Does the Mega Millions Lottery Work?

Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million and grow based on game sales and interest rates. Despite a surge in ticket sales, the odds of winning the big prize remain the same at 1 in 303 million. Lets put those odds into perspective. The odds of you being hit by lightning is 1 in 1m, the odds of being hit by an asteroid is 1 in 10,000 and the odds for being murdered is 1 in 18,989. So, technically speaking you’re more likely to be murdered 16,000 times over than hitting a lottery win – but someone has to win it, why shouldn’t it be you!

Mega Millions tickets are $2 and can be purchased in 45 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. ET every Tuesday and Friday at the studios of Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV, supervised by the Georgia Lottery. Winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years.

There are options to use a Megaplier which effectively boosts your prizes should you be fortunate enough to win. What is the Megaplier? Most states use a Megaplier feature in which players can increase non-jackpot prize winnings by 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x. In a participating state, you can play the Megaplier for an extra $1…

…any non-jackpot prize won on a Mega Millions play will be multiplied by the Megaplier number drawn if you have purchased the Megaplier feature. For example, if you win the $1 million second-tier prize in Mega Millions, and the Megaplier number drawn is 5, your prize would be a whopping $5 million if you purchased the Megaplier for just $1 extra!