Mega Millions Jackpot Surges to $575 Million

8-24-2024 – The ninth largest jackpot in Mega Millions® history will be up for grabs next Tuesday, August 27! An estimated prize of $575 million ($285.5 million cash) is on tap after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night – the white balls 28, 30, 44, 66 and 69, plus the gold Mega Ball 2. It’s only the second time since the game began in 2002 that the jackpot has reached this level during the month of August; the Mega Millions record of $1.602 billion was won in Florida on August 8, 2023.

As the jackpot grows, so does the number of winning tickets at all other prize levels – there were a total of 1,025,239 winning tickets for the August 23 drawing. Two tickets matched the five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize. One, sold in Tennessee, 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 second-tier winning ticket was sold in Texas and wins the standard $1 million second prize.

Across the country, 26 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize. Five of those are worth $30,000 each because they also included the optional Megaplier; the other 21 take home the standard $10,000 each.

The jackpot has been growing since it was last won at $552 million in Illinois on June 4. In the 23 drawings in this jackpot run to date, there have been more than 14.8 million winning tickets across all non-jackpot prize tiers. These include 45 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 21 different jurisdictions from coast to coast: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Only two Mega Millions jackpots have been won so far this year. Before the Illinois win on June 4, a whopping $1.128 billion was won in New Jersey. That prize is still unclaimed (winners in New Jersey have one year from the drawing date to claim).

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:

The post Mega Millions Jackpot Surges to $575 Million appeared first on Wilson County Source .