Mega Millions appeared to enter record territory on Tuesday after the estimated jackpot for the drawing on Tuesday, August 8th, was raised to $1.58 billion.
If the jackpot is awarded at that level, it would eclipse the previous record of $1.537 billion. That mark has stood for nearly five years — since October 23, 2018, when a single winning ticket was sold in South Carolina.
“It’s entertaining for our players, and all of us, to see the Mega Millions jackpot roll to what looks like an all-time game record,” Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin said in a statement Tuesday. Corbin also serves as lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, which runs the multi-jurisdictional lottery game.
The last time someone won the Mega Millions jackpot was April 18, when a winning ticket valued at $20 million ($10.5 million in cash) was sold in New York. There have been 31 consecutive drawings without a winner since then, allowing the jackpot to continue to roll.
Regardless of when the next Mega Millions jackpot will be awarded, it will be the fifth time in the multi-jurisdictional lottery game’s nearly 21-year history that there was a jackpot of at least $1 billion. It will be the second time this year that the jackpot exceeded $1 billion — the last time was January 13, when a winning ticket was sold in Maine.
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Top 10 Mega Millions Jackpots
| Rank | Jackpot | Date | Where Winning Ticket(s) Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| *$1.58 billion (estimated) | August 8, 2023 | ??? | |
| $1.537 billion | October 23, 2018 | SC | |
| $1.348 billion | January 13, 2023 | ME | |
| $1.337 billion | July 29, 2022 | IL | |
| $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 |
“As jackpot fever continues to sweep the nation, we remind everyone to play responsibly,” Corbin said. “We also want to thank our players and retailers for their support, which helps us fund good causes in every Mega Millions jurisdiction.”
Mega Millions' rules allow jackpot winners to either receive the entire jackpot in 30 annual installments — with each payment 5% larger than the previous one — or in a one-time, lump-sum payment equal to all of the cash in the prize pool. The cash value of Tuesday night’s drawing is an estimated $783.3 million.
Top 10 Mega Millions Jackpots
There are nine ways to win in Mega Millions. Prizes range from $2 to the jackpot, but most of the 47 jurisdictions that offer the game also offer a Megaplier option for an extra $1. That allows a non-jackpot prize to be multiplied by 2, 3, 4, or 5 times.
According to Mega Millions, there were more than 5.3 million winning tickets across all prize level tears from the August 4 drawing alone. During the entire jackpot run, more than 36.6 million winning Mega Millions tickets were sold across all prize levels.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in about 303 million.
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Must be 21 or over and in Michigan to play. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call the MDHHS Gambling Disorder Help-line at 1-800-270-7117 or visit the MDHHS website.
Mega Millions is available in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands. The game is unavailable in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, or Puerto Rico, although the island has access to Powerball.
A consortium of 12 state lotteries in the US manages Mega Millions. The game is drawn twice a week on Tuesday and Friday nights, including holidays, from the studios of WSB-TV in Atlanta. The Georgia Lottery, a member of the consortium, supervises the drawings.
Besides Georgia, the other states in the consortium are California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington State.
