WASHINGTON — Lottery players will have another shot at a huge Mega Millions jackpot Friday night and a chance to break a stretch of more than three months without a big winner of the game.
The estimated $940 million prize has been building since someone last matched all six numbers and won the jackpot April 18. Since then, there have been 28 straight drawings without a jackpot winner.
The jackpot is now the eighth-largest ever in the U.S. It comes a little over a week after someone in Los Angeles won a $1.08 billion Powerball prize that ranked as the sixth-largest in U.S. history. It's still a mystery who won that prize.
Lottery jackpots grow so large because the odds of winning are so small. For Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million.
The $940 million prize would be for a sole winner choosing to be paid through an annuity with annual payments over 30 years. Jackpot winners almost always opt for a lump sum payment, which for Friday night's drawing would be an estimated $472.5 million.
Winners also would be subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
What are the largest lottery jackpots ever?
- $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 (one ticket, from Maine)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.08 billion, Powerball, July 19, 2023 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $940 million, Mega Millions (estimated), July 28, 2023
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
