Find your lucky numbers: Two of the biggest jackpots in U.S. lottery history have grown even larger ahead of this week’s drawings.
Mega Millions, with a projected $850 million jackpot — the third largest in lottery history and the game’s second largest ever — comes first on Tuesday night.
A projected $730 million will be up for grabs the next night in the Powerball drawing, the fourth largest jackpot in the game’s history and the sixth largest in U.S. history.
It has been nearly two years since a lottery jackpot has grown so large. No one has won either game’s top prize since September.
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Both Mega Millions and Powerball will mark 35 drawings this week without a winner — for the Mega Millions, Tuesday’s roll surpasses the record number of drawings for the game.
Here’s how the current Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots, worth nearly a combined $1.6 billion, stack up to the top 10 in U.S. history:
- Powerball: $1.586 billion (Jan. 13, 2016; winning tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee)
- Mega Millions: $1.537 billion (Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina)
- Mega Millions: $850 million (current)
- Powerball: $768.4 million (March 27, 2019; Wisconsin)
- Powerball: $758.7 million (Aug. 23, 2017; Massachusetts)
- Powerball: $730 million (current)
- Powerball: $687.8 million (Oct. 27, 2018; Iowa and New York)
- Mega Millions: $656 million (March 30, 2012; Illinois, Kansas and Maryland)
- Mega Millions: $648 million (Dec. 17, 2012; California and Georgia)
- Powerball: $590.5 million (May 18, 2013; Florida)
The jackpots promoted by both lotteries are the prize winnings of winners who take an annuity option, in which prizes are paid out over 30 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, now $628.2 million for Mega Millions and $546 million for Powerball.
Mega Millions and Powerball are both played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball also is offered in Puerto Rico.
Contributing: Jennie Key, Cincinnati Enquirer
2021-01-18 13:31:54