The Mega Millions lottery has upped the ante by another 100 million dollars.
The absence of a jackpot winner in the latest drawing, held Friday night, brings the top prize to an estimated $820 million.
The winning combination was 29, 40, 47, 50, 57 and gold Mega Ball 25. No tickets with those numbers were sold for the drawing, which had an estimated prize of $720 million.
The new prize, to be played in Tuesday’s drawing, will go solely to one winner who chooses to receive the prize in one annual payment over 29 years. Almost all of the millionaire prize winners opt for the cash payment, which is estimated at $422 million as of Tuesday.
The potential jackpot is the fifth largest in the game’s history, Mega Millions said in a statement early Saturday.
Despite the low probability of hitting, 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to buy tickets as the size of the jackpot increases.
The last time Mega Millions awarded the top prize was on April 18.
In Friday’s drawing, eight tickets matched all five white balls and will receive a $1 million prize. In Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina, two ballots per state were sold, while California and Michigan sold one, Mega Millions explained.
The Powerball jackpot was also nearing its record when a small downtown Los Angeles corner store sold the winning ticket in Wednesday’s drawing, worth an estimated $1.08 billion.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, plus Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.
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