There was no winner in the Mega Millions or Powerball lottery drawing so it looks like your dream of winning the lottery is still alive!
That means the jackpot for Friday's drawing as of now is at $970 million or a cash lump sum of $500 million. It will be the largest jackpot in the game's history and the second largest in the US lottery jackpot history.
The Mega Millions jackpot beat its own record once again after no ticket matched all the six numbers in the drawing Tuesday night. The winning numbers on Tuesday were 69, 45, 61, 3, 49, and the Mega Ball was 9.
Friday's Mega Millions along with Saturday's Powerball jackpot, which stands at $430 million, are worth more than $1 billion dollars combined!
The reason these jackpots have increased so high is because, well, no one has won in a while. According to a release from Mega Millions, the last Mega Millions jackpot was won July 24, netting 11 co-workers a combined $543 million. The last Powerball jackpot, which totaled $245.6 million, was won August 11 by a man in Staten Island, New York.
Believe it or not, this week's combined billion-dollar jackpot is not the biggest prize in the lottery's history. That honor goes to a 2016 Powerball jackpot, which was $1.586 billion (although it was shared by three winners).
Of course, the actual amount you'll win is considerably less than a billion dollars, not just because of taxes and annuities and fine print things. The amount you will win is likely $0, because the odds of winning either jackpot are one in several hundred million, but as the saying goes.....you never know if you don't play!
Someone will eventually win, and often times there are secondary prizes to those huge drawings that can be worth millions but they often go unclaimed because people are so focused on the big jackpot.
If you do happen to win the lottery, here are a few valuable tips:
1. Keep the winning ticket safe.
2. Don't spread the news that you won.
3. Don't take the lump sum payment.
4. Remove yourself from social media.
5. Hire financial professionals.