Want to be a billionaire?
Mega Millions announced its upcoming jackpot on Tuesday will be an estimated $1.1 billion after no one won the big prize Friday night.
The winning numbers for Friday night's jackpot, which had a jackpot of $977 million, were 3, 8, 31, 35, 44 and a MegaBall of 16. The Megaplier is 3x.
Tuesday's upcoming jackpot will be the eighth-highest lottery jackpot ever, surpassing the $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot won in Los Angeles in July of last year.
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The $1.1 billion represents three months of no one winning the Mega Millions grand prize. The jackpot also comes with a lump-sum cash option estimated to be at $525.8 million.
Mega Millions offers jackpot winners the option of accepting a one-time cash payment, or the full $1.1 billion to paid out with 30 payments over 29 years. Most people choose the cash option.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever, worth $1.602 billion, was sold on Aug. 8, 2023, in Florida.
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Lottery jackpots grow so large because the odds of winning are so small. For Mega Millions, players have a 1 in 302.6 million chance of taking home the top prize.
This is just the sixth time in the nearly 22-year history of the Mega Millions game that the jackpot has ever exceeded $1 billion.
And, lottery winnings do not come without taxes.
There's a mandatory 24% federal withholding for winnings above $5,000 that goes straight to the IRS. Some states tax lottery winnings as well, but states like California, Florida and Texas do not, at least initially as income.
