Mega Millions jackpot nears $1 billion after latest draw

The Mega Millions jackpot inched closer to the billion-dollar mark after its latest drawing produced no top prize winner.

The lottery said Tuesday night’s drawing had no players with tickets that matched all the numbers, pushing the jackpot to an annuitized $825 million. As a one-time payment, it amounts to $382.2 million.

The jackpot is poised to become Mega Millions’ fourth top prize of 2024 if someone lands it before the end of the year, according to the lottery.

The three jackpot wins that Mega Millions has seen so far this year occurred in mid-September, early June and late March. They were worth $810 million, $552 million, and $1.128 billion, respectively.

The $1.128 billion top prize, won in March and still unclaimed, is the lottery’s largest to date and its only one to break 10 figures in 2024 to date, according to Mega Millions.

The current $825 million jackpot “would be the largest prize ever won in December and the seventh largest in Mega Millions history” if someone matches all six numbers this month, Mega Millions said.

Drawings made since September, when the Mega Millions jackpot was last won, have produced a host of lower-level lottery winners. Fifty-one people have received windfalls of at least $1 million, and others have received smaller amounts, the lottery reported.

Mega Millions plans to conduct its next drawing for the $825 million top prize on Friday night. The odds of landing the nine-figure jackpot are 1 in about 302.6 million.

Fellow lottery Powerball also has a jackpot, although it is currently considerably smaller than Mega Millions.

The Powerball jackpot hovered around $69 million ahead of Wednesday night’s drawing. Its cash value was $32.2 million, according to that lottery.