Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to Over $1 Billion – the Third Highest Total in Its History
CJ GUNTHER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock A Mega Million ticket
The next winner of the Mega Million lottery could find themselves $1.025 billion richer on Saturday morning.
"We look with anticipation on the growing jackpot," Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, current Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement Wednesday after nobody matched all six numbers in Tuesday night's draw.
"Seeing the jackpot build over a period of months and reaching the billion-dollar mark is truly breathtaking," added McDonald. "We encourage customers to keep play in balance and enjoy the ride. Someone is going to win."
A total of eight tickets won $1 million by matching all five white balls on Tuesday. A ninth ticket, sold in Ohio, won $3 million with the 3x multiplier. Yet the jackpot – which can only be won by matching one of 25 gold Mega Ball numbers – remained untouched.
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The Mega Millions jackpot has not been won in 29 drawings, since April 15, meaning that Friday's jackpot is the third highest in Mega Millions history and just shy of the $1.050 billion jackpot won in Michigan on January 22, 2021.
The Mega Millions record jackpot, however, is an enormous $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018. The prize remains the world's largest lottery payout ever won on a single ticket according to Mega Millions' official website.
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On July 18, lifelong friends honored a yearslong promise to split the proceeds of their own good fortune after Perry Charles won a $361,527 Fast Play jackpot and shared his prize with his friend Scott Edwards, reported the North Carolina Education Lottery.
"I'd just gotten off of work," Charles recalled of purchasing a ticket. "I looked at the amount you could win and thought to myself, 'Man, I want this!' "
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After learning he had won the prize when he returned home from the Mast Food Mart on Old U.S. 64 East in Lexington, Charles called Edward right away to share the exciting news.
"I was lost for words. I was kind of in shock too because to me that's a lot of money to win. And I know that anything he says is just the truth. So, I knew when he told me that he wasn't pulling my leg," he said. "He's what you call a true friend. Kinda like family."
