WASHINGTON — Mega Millions lottery players didn't get an early Christmas jackpot surprise this year as no one won the game's top prize in Friday night's drawing. Though two people are heading into the holiday weekend as millionaires.
The winning numbers for Friday's $510 million jackpot were 15-21-32-38-62 and Mega Ball 8. The Megaplier was 4x. The cash option, which most winners choose, was $265 million.
The jackpot for Tuesday's drawing will now jump to $565 million, which is the largest prize it's ever offered in the last week of a calendar year, according to Mega Millions.
Players must match all five numbers and the gold Mega Ball number to win the jackpot. Players face astronomical odds for a jackpot win: 1 in 302.5 million.
One player in California and another in Illinois won $1 million in Friday's drawing by matching all five numbers but not the Mega Ball. It was a big night for smaller wins: 31 people will take home $10,000 and three people hit the Megaplier to win $40,000.
If the jackpot is won during the next drawing on Tuesday, Dec. 27, it would be the sixth largest prize in the history of the game.
The country has seen a record-setting year for lottery games, with multiple huge jackpots for both Mega Millions and Powerball.
After months of hype, a single Powerball ticket in California won the record-setting $2.04 billion jackpot in November. The winners have not yet come forward or been identified. California law requires winners to come forward publicly, but they have a year to do so.
Over the summer, a near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot had Americans in a lottery frenzy in July. A winner in Illinois eventually put the run to an end and matched all six numbers to take home the grand prize. Two people came forward to claim it, but chose to stay anonymous, something that is allowed in Illinois but not every state.
In October, the jackpot climbed again to nearly half-a-billion dollars. Two ticket-holders in California and Florida matched all six Mega Millions numbers, splitting an estimated prize of $494 million between the two of them.