The magic of Christmas could continue into Friday night as the Mega Millions jackpot is expected to swell to an estimated $1.15 billion.
This comes after no tickets matched all six numbers drawn on Christmas Eve–with the white balls 11, 14, 38, 45 and 46 and the gold Mega Ball 3.
The next drawing will be on Friday, Dec. 27, at 11 p.m. ET, and if someone matches all the numbers, it will be the fifth largest jackpot won in the lottery’s history at $1.15 billion or $516.1 million for the cash value option, according to Mega Millions’ website. This is the seventh time in the lottery’s history that it has had a jackpot over $1 billion.
But this jackpot isn’t quite the highest it has ever been. That record goes to a $1.602 billion jackpot won on Aug. 8, 2023, by a Florida ticket.
Even though no one won the jackpot Tuesday night, there were 4,292,383 winning tickets across the country and four tickets matched all five of the white balls for the second-tier prize. Those four tickets were sold in California, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.
“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15 billion jackpot,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, in a news release. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holidays – whether Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, or any other way people choose to celebrate the season – than by helping fulfill the dreams that come with a prize like this and prizes that will be won at all levels of the game.”
The last time the jackpot was won was on Sept. 10 by a Texas ticket. That pot reached $810 million.
So far, in 2024, the jackpot has only been won three times and there are only two drawings left this year. Last year, there were 10 jackpots won.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
