Mega Millions Soars to $740 Million As Holidays Near

December 16, 2024 – The largest Mega Millions® jackpot ever offered in the month of December will be up for grabs Tuesday, December 17, just in time for the holidays! The jackpot jumps to an estimated $740 million ($342.9 million cash) after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night – the white balls 36, 43, 52, 58 and 65, plus the gold Mega Ball 16. If won at that level, it would be the eighth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. The jackpot has been rolling since it was last won at $810 million in Texas on September 10.

The last time the jackpot was close to this level in the days before Christmas was in 2013, when a $648 million prize was shared between winners in California and Georgia on December 17. Another big prize was won on December 17, 2019, when an Ohio ticket-holder took home a $375 million jackpot. Could next Tuesday bring the third December 17 jackpot win in Mega Millions history?

While the jackpot remains elusive, there are plenty of other winning tickets. In the December 13 drawing alone, there were a total of 1,256,298 winning tickets across all non-jackpot prize levels. Four tickets matched the five white balls for the game’s second-tier prize. One, sold in Vermont, is worth $3 million because it included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an extra $1 purchase), which was 3X Friday night. The other three second-tier prizes were won in California, Massachusetts and New York.

Around the country, 28 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Four of those are worth $30,000 each because they also included the optional Megaplier; the other 24 take home the standard $10,000 each.

In the 27 drawings of this current jackpot run that began on September 13, there have been almost 17.8 million winning tickets sold. These include 46 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 20 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: California, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Note: Prize amounts in California will vary, as they are calculated on a pari-mutuel basis.

The Mega Millions jackpot has been won only three times in 2024, so far the fewest won in any single year since the game began. Before the Texas win on September 10, the jackpot had been won on just two earlier occasions this year. The biggest lottery prize ever awarded to an online player was a $552 million jackpot taken by an Illinois player on June 4. And on March 26, a $1.128 billion prize was won in New Jersey. No one has yet come forward to claim that jackpot; the ticket will expire if not claimed by March 26, 2025, and the unpaid prize will revert back to each participating Mega Millions jurisdiction.

Mega Millions is the only lottery game that has produced six jackpots greater than $1 billion. All were won in different states – South Carolina was the first in 2018, followed by Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine in early 2023, Florida last August and New Jersey in March. The Florida prize on August 8, 2023, is the game’s current record jackpot at $1.602 billion.

Tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 each; in most jurisdictions, players can add the Megaplier for an additional $1 to multiply their non-jackpot prizes. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each Mega Millions ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold, where the money supports designated good causes and retailer commissions.

Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24; the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

The top Mega Millions jackpots:

Source: Mega Millions

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