Mega Millions Climbs to Richest Amount Since Game Change Slightly Shortened Jackpot Odds
The one-time cash option is $318.2 million, and the anticipated Mega Millions jackpot for Friday night's drawing is $680 million.
Since the interstate lottery game changed its gameplay earlier this year, the jackpot for the Friday, October 24, Mega Millions drawing is by far the biggest prize available.
The base cost of a Mega Millions ticket more than doubled from $2 to $5 starting with the drawing on April 8. The price increase was intended to help players, according to representatives of the Mega Millions Consortium, which runs the twice-weekly game from the Georgia Lottery Studios in Atlanta.
The Megaplier, which was previously optional, is now included in the $5 basic play. Because the smallest net win is $10 for just matching the gold Mega Ball on a 2x embedded multiplier, break-even results are no longer possible. Lottery representatives asserted that the April modifications will result in larger payments at all nonjackpot prize tiers.
Additionally, the overall odds of winning the jackpot decreased from one in 302.2 million to one in 290.4 million. The pool currently ranges from 1 to 24 as a result of Mega Millions eliminating one gold Mega Ball.
Top 10 Regions
The Mega Millions jackpot for tonight is the seventh largest in the organization's history. Since 2021, all but two of the top ten Mega Millions jackpots have been won.
Since a Virginia player won a $348 million prize in June, the Mega Millions jackpot has been ongoing. The winner chose the $155.6 million one-time cash option, which is before Virginia's 5.75% take and federal taxes of 37%.
Although there have been 9.5 million winning tickets at all prize levels during the run, the Mega Millions jackpot has rolled over 33 times since.
Wins on Tuesday
During the October 21 drawing, a single ticket almost put an end to the Mega Millions' four-month run.
The play, which was sold in Illinois, won the $1 million second-tier prize by matching the five white drawn balls but missing the gold Mega Ball. The guy matched all five white balls despite the odds of almost 1 in 12.6 million. The ticket's built-in multiplier increased the winnings to $3 million.
Eleven additional tickets that matched four of the five white balls and the gold Mega Ball might win between $20K and $100K, depending on the multiplier that was contained in each ticket. To win $100,000, only one ticket landed on 10X.
During the Tuesday drawing, there were 436,959 winning tickets total across all reward tiers. Nearly $12 million was paid out nationwide for the tickets.
The drawing is scheduled for tonight at 11 p.m. EST. States have different sales cutoff times, ranging from 15 minutes to two hours prior to the draw.
