CNN
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What better way to start the new year than with a lottery ticket with a 10-figure prize?
Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is $1.15 billion, or $516.1 million in cash. Prizes have soared since the previous drawing on Christmas Eve, when no winners won the estimated $1 billion jackpot.
If he wins on Friday, the prize would be the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.
“We understand that many people will likely receive tickets for Friday’s drawing as a holiday gift, but if we end up winning a prize worth $1.15 billion, What a wonderful gift it would be to win a ticket worth the jackpot.” Millions Consortium press release.
On Friday, there will be another chance for the 2024 Mega Millions winners to win, but no one has won the jackpot in more than 100 days.
The company says this year is one of the lowest for jackpot wins since the game began in 2002. Only three people were elected this year.
In 2023, 10 jackpots were won. Since the game’s inception, 217 jackpots have been won on 244 individual tickets.
According to the Mega Millions website, the odds of winning a prize in a lottery game are 1 in 24, but the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
The previous highest prize was last year, when $1.602 billion was won on a single Florida ticket.
Researchers have expressed concern that not only are the chances of winning the Mega Millions extremely low, but that state lotteries are siphoning money from poor communities under the guise of a chance to win wealth.
A study by the Howard Center for Investigative Reporting found that as of 2022, stores selling lottery tickets were disproportionately located in poorer areas of each state, with proceeds going to distant universities and wealthy school districts rather than locally. .
Half of the proceeds from each lottery ticket will be kept on sale to support “good causes and retailer commissions,” according to a company press release.
A Howard Center study found that ticket sales will increase from $47 billion to $82 billion in 2022, generating more revenue than corporate taxes in 10 states.
Tickets cost $2, and players in most jurisdictions are given the option to pay an additional dollar to increase their non-jackpot winnings. The company announced in October that it would more than double its prices in April 2025, promising bigger prizes in return. Tickets will be $5 each.
Jackpot winning numbers are announced on the Mega Millions website every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 PM ET. Friday’s winning numbers will be posted on the website immediately after the evening drawing.
