Mega Millions Jackpot Has Climbed to an Estimated $750 Million

If becoming a multimillionaire was on your list of resolutions for the new year, you may want to consider buying a lottery ticket ahead of this Friday’s Mega Millions drawing.

The game’s jackpot hit great heights on Wednesday with a now-estimated $750 million prize. This marks the second-largest payout in the game’s history.

In September, a ticket holder in Wisconsin won the $120 million jackpot. There has not been a player to hit all six numbers since that time.

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. EST. This past Tuesday, nine tickets were reported to have matched five of the six white balls in the game, resulting in a second prize-winning of $1 million. The winning tickets were sold in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, California, and Missouri.

January has historically been a lucky month for Mega Millions players. According to the Mega Millions website, 16 jackpot prizes have been awarded during the month of January since the start of the popular game in 2002. Included in these jackpots were two of the game’s top 10 prizes of all time: $451 million on January 5, 2018, and $437 million on January 1, 2019.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states across the country, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Curious about your chances of becoming the next lucky prize winner? Well, your odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302,575,360.

Should someone win the jackpot this Friday, they would have the choice between annuity payments or a one-time cash option. In the case of annuity payments, the winner would receive payments over the course of 29 years. The lump-sum option pays an immediate $550.6 million, with about half the winnings going toward taxes. Still, that’s hardly chump change!

The largest Mega Millions prize in history was worth $1.537 billion. The jackpot was won by a single lucky ticket holder from South Carolina in 2019. Since then, this is the first time the jackpot has risen over $600 million. 

So, will you be purchasing a ticket (or two) for Friday’s drawing? As the saying goes, you’ve got to play to win. Best of luck to the ticket holders nationwide — may the odds be ever in your favor!