The Mega Millions jackpot rises to an estimated $944 million for the Christmas Eve drawing

On By Littum



CNN
—

This Christmas Eve, one lucky lottery ticket could celebrate with a Mega Millions jackpot approaching $1 billion – the largest prize ever offered in the month of December.

With no one winning the jackpot Friday, the top prize for Tuesday’s drawing rose from $862 million to $944 million, according to the lottery. A jackpot winner in Tuesday’s drawing could choose to receive the money in annuitized payments or take a lump sum estimated at $429.4 million.

Friday’s winning numbers were: 2, 20, 51, 56, 67 and Mega Ball 19.

Although no tickets matched all six numbers in Friday night’s drawing, five tickets still won $1 million each by matching the first five numbers. Those tickets were sold in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, according to Mega Millions website.

The holiday drawing is part of what the Mega Millions organization calls “most unusual jackpot years.” Since Mega Millions began in 2002, there has never been a single year in which all jackpots won ranked among the 10 largest prizes awarded at that time.

In March, a New Jersey Mega Millions ticket holder won a $1.13 billion jackpot. In June, an anonymous player in Illinois took home $552 million after entering the winning numbers in an online lottery purchase. And in September, a Houston-area resident claimed one $800 million Mega Millions jackpot prize one month after purchasing the winning ticket in a gas station convenience store in Sukkerland.

Historically, December has been a pretty lucky month for Mega Millions players, with 13 jackpots won during the holiday season. But the jackpot is only won once on Christmas Eve, according to Mega Millions.

Overall, the odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot are approximately 1 in 302.5 million.

“We tend to see sales increase during the holidays,” Joshua Johnston, the executive director of the Mega Millions Consortium, told CNN, adding that the bump in ticket sales happens when people are out shopping.

“There really isn’t a product on the market for two dollars that will give you an opportunity over a few days to just imagine and dream what it would be like to win that amount of money,” he said. “And it’s just so much fun to think about, especially around the holidays when there’s already a sense of magic in the air.”