The new jackpot for Friday night’s drawing stood at $1.28 billion at midday, according to Ohio Lottery Commission spokeswoman Marie Kilbane. That would make it the second-largest jackpot in Mega Millions’ 20-year history.
“We are thrilled with the rare opportunity this Mega Millions jackpot brings to our retailers, customers, and good causes supported by each participating lottery,” Kilbane told US Gaming Review. “We look forward to welcoming the jackpot winner when the time comes.”
Kilbane said that if there is no winner from tonight’s drawing, the next jackpot would likely be $1.7 billion — a new US record. The current record jackpot is $1.537 billion, which went on a winning ticket sold in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.
In just three short days, the jackpot nearly doubled, thanks in no small part to the massive pot generating lots of media attention. “We’ve seen double-digit increases in sales compared to the last drawing,” Kilbane said.
Since Last Jackpot, 28.1 Million Winners of Smaller Prizes
No one has won the Mega Millions jackpot since April 15, but it was for a fraction of the current jackpot. The last winning ticket was sold in Tennessee and was worth $20 million at the time, with a cash value of $11.9 million.
There have been 29 rollover drawings for the Mega Millions jackpot since then.
Jackpot winners can either receive the entire jackpot in 30 annual installments — with each payment 5% larger than the previous one — or they can elect to receive a one-time, lump-sum payment equal to all the cash in the prize pool. Friday night’s drawing has a cash value of about $747.2 million.
Players have nine ways to win in Mega Millions, with prizes ranging from $2 to the jackpot. Most of the 47 jurisdictions that offer the game also offer a Megaplier option for an extra $1. Under Megaplier, a non-jackpot prize can be increased by 2, 3, 4, or 5 times.
Since the last jackpot was awarded, 28.1 million winning tickets have been sold across all nine prize tiers. Mega Millions said that, since April 19, 42 second-tier winning tickets worth at least $1 million have been sold. Another 687 third-tier winning tickets valued at $10,000 or more have also been sold in that timeframe.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 303 million.
Mega Millions is available in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands (USVI). It is unavailable in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, or Utah. The game is also unavailable in Puerto Rico, although the island has access to Powerball.
A consortium of 12 state lotteries in the US manages Mega Millions, which is drawn twice a week on Tuesday and Friday nights, including holidays, from the studios of WSB-TV in Atlanta. The drawing is supervised by the Georgia Lottery, one of the consortium members.
Besides Georgia and Ohio, the other states in the consortium are California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington state.
Top 10 Mega Millions Jackpots
| Rank | Jackpot | Date | Where Winning Ticket(s) Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1.537 billion | October 23, 2018 | SC | |
| $1.28 billion (estimated) | July 29, 2022 | ??? | |
| $1.05 billion | January 22, 2021 | MI | |
| $656 million | March 30, 2012 | IL, KS, MD | |
| $648 million | December 17, 2013 | CA, GA | |
| $543 million | July 24, 2018 | CA | |
| $536 million | July 8, 2016 | IN | |
| $533 million | March 30, 2018 | NJ | |
| $522 million | June 7, 2019 | CA | |
| $516 million | May 21, 2021 | PA |
