A giant Mega Millions lottery jackpot ballooned to $1.02 billion after no one matched all six numbers Tuesday night and won the top prize.
The new estimated jackpot for Friday night’s drawing will be the nation’s fourth-largest lottery prize. The jackpot has grown so large because no one has matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner.
In Tuesday night’s drawing, five tickets sold in Georgia matched four of the white balls in addition to having the Mega Ball, which nets them $10,000 — and one of those tickets also played the Megaplier option, which last night was 3X, so the winnings for that ticket grew to $30,000.
Back on July 1, a single ticket from Georgia matched the five white balls in the drawing, earning that ticket holder a cool $1 million.
Tuesday’s numbers were: 7-29-60-63-66, Mega Ball: 15.
The $1.02 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 30 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for the next drawing Friday night is an estimated $602.5 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
In addition to Georgia, Mega Millions is played in 44 other states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.
