WASHINGTON — The Mega Millions jackpot has jumped to $740 million after no one won the grand prize for the drawing on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
The prize has steadily grown over the last few months. A jackpot winner for the next drawing on Friday night would take home the seventh-largest Mega Millions prize in the lottery game's history.
One ticket in Kansas and one in Michigan did match the five white ball numbers and won a million dollars each during Tuesday's drawing.
Mega Millions' most recent winner was an anonymous player in Illinois who won a $552 million jackpot ($260.2 million cash) on June 4. Huge jackpot wins have been the norm in 2024: A ticket sold in New Jersey hit a $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot in March, and a Powerball ticket in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion in April.
The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 302,575,350.
In the six previous jackpot runs that reached this level for Mega Millions, the top prize continued rolling past the $1 billion mark.
"Strangely enough, there has never been a Mega Millions jackpot won between $656 million (a past world record prize for any jackpot game, won in March 2012) and $1 billion," the lottery game noted online.
Mega Millions winning numbers for Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024
The winning numbers were 12-41-43-52-55 Mega Ball: 9 Megaplier: 4.
When a winner matches all five numbers and the Mega Ball, they have the option to take the full jackpot paid out as an annuity over 30 years, or a smaller lump sum cash payout. Winners almost always take the cash option, which was $337 million for Tuesday's drawing.
The cash option for Friday's drawing is $366.3 million.
Players who match only the first five numbers win at least $1 million.
What time is the Mega Millions drawing?
Mega Millions drawings take place on Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
What are the largest US lottery jackpots ever won?
- $2.04 billion: Powerball - Nov. 7, 2022
- $1.76 billion – Powerball - Oct. 11, 2023
- $1.586 billion: Powerball – Jan. 13, 2016
- $1.58 billion: Mega Millions – Aug. 8, 2023
- $1.537 billion: Mega Millions – Oct. 23, 2018
- $1.35 billion: Mega Millions - Jan. 13, 2023
- $1.337 billion: Mega Millions - July 29, 2022
- $1.326 billion: Powerball – April, 6, 2024
- $1.13 billion: Mega Millions - March 26, 2024
- $1.08 billion: Powerball – July 19, 2023
