Someone could potentially add hundreds of millions to their bank account while taking advantage of Black Friday sales and savoring some leftover turkey this year.
The Mega Millions jackpot has reached an estimated $514 million, with the next drawing coming up at 11 p.m. ET on Nov. 29, the day after Thanksgiving. The cash payout is $241 million.
No one has hit the Mega Millions jackpot since Sept. 10, when a winner in Texas took home an $810 million prize. This is the fourth time this year that the jackpot has gone over $500 million, according to Mega Millions.
Only three Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year compared to 10 last year, according to the company. A winner in Illinois claimed a $552 million prize in June, and the person with the winning ticket in a monster $1.128 billion prize in New Jersey from March has still not come forward.
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The winning billion-dollar ticket expires on March 26, 2025, and the prize money will revert back to each participating Mega Millions jurisdiction if no one claims it.
Mega Millions tickets are sold for $2 in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's the only lottery that has produced six jackpots of more than $1 billion, according to the company.
The record for the highest Mega Millions jackpot is $1.602 billion, won by a person in Florida in 2023. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
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In April, a winner of the Powerball jackpot, a separate lottery, took home a $1.3 billion prize in Oregon.
If you’re the lucky winner of the Nov. 29 drawing, we have expert tips on what to do.
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