Save those holiday-gift lottery tickets: Mega Millions jackpot surpasses $1bn

The Mega Millions jackpot has surpassed $1bn after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Christmas Eve. That means the estimated jackpot for Friday’s drawing is $1.15bn, potentially the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15bn jackpot,” Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a Wednesday statement.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, while the odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24, according to lottery officials.

Tickets for the game are sold in 45 states, along with Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands, and cost $2. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold. Drawings are held at 11pm Eastern time on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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