Mega Millions hasn’t seen a winner since July 29, when a single ticket sold in a Chicago suburb won a $1.337 billion prize.
WASHINGTON — The Mega Millions jackpot is up for grabs once again, with $494 million on the line for Friday’s drawing.
The numbers are in for Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot, after several months without a grand prize winner. The lottery game says this is its second-largest jackpot this year.
The winning numbers for Friday’s $494 million prize were 9-22-26-41-44, Mega Ball 19 and Megaplier 2.
With no big winner from Tuesday night’s drawing, the jackpot rose to $494 million — $247.9 million if the winner takes the more popular cash payout.
Mega Millions hasn’t seen a winner since July 29, when a single ticket sold in a Chicago suburb won a $1.337 billion prize.
In order to win the Mega Millions grand prize, a player needs to match all five numbers and the gold Mega Ball number. Players face astronomical odds for a jackpot win: 1 in 302.5 million.
If there are no winners on Friday’s drawing, players will have another chance to go for the enlarged jackpot on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Meanwhile, Powerball has an estimated $454 million jackpot up for grabs on Saturday as its own winless streak continues, inching the jackpot closer to the top 10 largest Powerball jackpots ever won. The cash value on the prize is $232.6 million.
Nobody won the Powerball jackpot Wednesday, but three tickets from Wednesday night’s drawing won $250,000 after matching four numbers and the Powerball, along with having the “Power Play” feature that multiplied the prize by five times. Those tickets were bought in Colorado, Idaho and Texas.
While Mega Millions and Powerball both hit jackpots over $400 million this week, neither come close to last summer’s near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot that had Americans in a lottery frenzy in July. A winner in Illinois took home the grand prize. Two people came forward last month to claim it but chose to stay anonymous.
Megan Divers contributed to this report.
