NATION

Mega Millions lottery soars to $970 million

Karen Okamoto
The News Journal

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot is now worth a staggering $970 million after no one won Tuesday.

That's the biggest jackpot in the game's history and the second-highest U.S. jackpot. The cash value is $494 million.

The next drawing is Friday night at 11 p.m. 

Meanwhile, Saturday night's Powerball jackpot is up to an estimated annuity value of $430 million ($248 million cash). Together, the two lotteries are now worth about $1.4 billion.

Here is a closer look at the two lotteries:

The records

The top U.S. jackpot is $1.586 billion, which was won in Powerball in January 2016.

The previous No. 2 U.S. jackpot also was a Powerball game, drawn in August 2017: $758.7 million.

What happened Tuesday

The Mega Millions numbers drawn Tuesday were white balls 03-45-49-61-69 and gold Mega Ball 09. The Megaplier was 5.

Nine tickets matched the five white balls to win the $1 million second prize. One of the tickets, sold in Texas, had the optional Megaplier so it's worth $5 million. The other winning tickets were sold in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania (two tickets).

Winning the third prize of $10,000 were 100 tickets; they matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball. Twelve of those tickets had the Megaplier, though, and are actually worth $50,000 each.

In Delaware, there were eight fourth-place winners with four correct white balls. Seven won $500, and one won $2,500 with the Multiplier. In all, 18,256 tickets won a prize in the First State.

DELAWARE LOTTERY:

Lottery ticket sales rank No. 5 in the nation

$2 million in prizes goes unclaimed every year

The last winners and the odds of winning

The Mega Millions jackpot has not been hit in 24 drawings. On July 24, 11 California co-workers shared $543 million, according to lottery officials. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

No one has won the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 11 — 19 drawings ago — when a New York man was the sole winner of $245.6 million, according to lottery officials. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.

The odds of winning both Powerball and Mega Millions are 1 in 88 quadrillion, according to CNBC. 

How to play

Mega Millions numbers are drawn at 11 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays. The game is played in 44 states; Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each and an additional $1 for the Megaplier option, which multiplies cash prizes two, three, four or five times up to $5 million cash.

Powerball numbers are drawn at 10:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tickets are sold in 44 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each and an additional $1 for the Power Play option, which multiplies non-jackpot prizes by two, three, four, five or 10 times.

In Delaware, tickets for both Mega Millions and Powerball are sold until 9:45 on the night of the drawings. 

FEELING LUCKY?:What are your odds of winning Mega Millions or Powerball? Or both?