Mega Millions Jackpot to Reach $850M

Mega Millions jackpot is expected to reach $850 million for the drawing on Tuesday next week. Eight lucky players won $1 million each on Friday this week, but nobody guessed the five numbers along with the Mega Ball number for the big jackpot.

$850M Jackpot up for the Grabs on Tuesday in Mega Millions

The hefty jackpot in Mega Millions survived another week. After drawing the winning numbers 3-11-12-38-43, and Mega Ball 15, the $750 million jackpot survived on Friday. The next drawing of Mega Millions is on Tuesday next week – January 19 at 11 P.M. ET and the jackpot is expected to reach the staggering $850 million.

Launched back in 1996 under the name “Big Game“, Mega Millions’ first drawing took place on September 6, 1996. Back then, only 6 states participated: Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia. By now, the jackpot game is offered in 45 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

To win the jackpot, players must pick 5 winning numbers out of 70 in total and also match the Mega Ball number which is 1 out of 25. The odds of that happening are 1 in 302.6 million, but there are plenty more prizes besides the jackpot for lucky players.

In fact, Friday’s Mega Millions drawing made 8 people millionaires who matched the 5 winning numbers and won $1 million each. Furthermore, another 142 lucky players  took home $10,000 for guessing 4 of the winning numbers. Out of that total, 22 players chose the $1 Megaplier option which brought them a $40,000 win each.

Reaching approximately $850 million for Tuesday’s drawing, this would be Mega Millions’ third-largest jackpot. The biggest Mega Millions jackpot was won on October 23, 2018. The anonymous winner chose the cash option with a one-time payment of approximately $878,000,000.

If a player wins the game’s jackpot drawing on Tuesday, they too can choose a one-time cash option instead of annual installments. However, this would reduce the jackpot from $850 million to $628.2 million.