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View Winners → News Aug 02, 2023
When the jackpot hits $1 billion or more, promotional signs at stores run out of space. | Photo by Drew Voros/HeySoCal.com
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The sixth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot will be up for grabs in Friday’s nearly nationwide Mega Millions drawing after there were no tickets sold with all six numbers in the latest drawing, pushing the jackpot to $1.25 billion.
There were seven tickets sold with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, including one each sold at liquor stores in Lancaster and Lincoln Heights, which are both worth $650,579, the California Lottery announced.
While tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning that payoffs can be both larger and smaller than those in other states.
One ticket with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in Texas is worth $4 million because the player utilized the Megaplier option, where for an additional $1 any non-jackpot prize is multiplied by the Megaplier number drawn, according to according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
The other tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, were sold in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin. They are each worth $1 million.
The numbers drawn Tuesday were 8, 24, 30, 45, 61 and the Mega number was 12. The estimated jackpot was $1.05 billion, matching the seventh-largest U.S. lottery jackpot.
The drawing was the 30th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number are 1 in 302,575,350, according to the California Lottery. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.
The Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.
