Dec. 26 update: As we now know, Mega Millions has gone five for five with no jackpot winners in its drawings that have been held on Christmas Day. Nobody won the jackpot in last night’s drawing, so the Mega Millions top prize has climbed to an estimated $348 million annuity, $210.2 million cash option for Friday’s drawing. The next time there will be a Mega Millions drawing on Christmas will be in 2020, when Dec. 25 is on a Friday. But in 2019, Dec. 25 will be on a Wednesday, so next year there will be a Powerball drawing for Christmas!
Jackpot drawings in our lotto games are held come rain or come shine – or as is the case tomorrow, come the Christmas holiday. And a BIG jackpot will be on the line this Christmas: the Mega Millions® jackpot has reached an estimated $321 million annuity, $193.7 million lump-sum option, for tomorrow night’s drawing.
This is just the fourth time that a Mega Millions drawing has been held on Christmas since the game’s start in 2002. (The last time was in 2015.) But so far, no one has actually won a Mega Millions jackpot on Christmas.
The game’s jackpot has been growing since it was last won in the drawing on Oct. 23. You may remember that big prize: that night’s jackpot of $1.54 billion was won with a single ticket purchased in South Carolina. The winner has not yet claimed the prize.
So, has Iowa ever seen a jackpot winner on Christmas? Our state’s very first Powerball® jackpot winner came close: Ed Brown of Washington split a $10.4 million jackpot with a Missouri woman in the Powerball drawing on Dec. 23, 1992.
And ten years later, a western Iowa man won a Hot Lotto jackpot in that game’s drawing on Christmas Day 2002. Don Sporrer of Denison waited a few weeks before claiming his $2.7 million prize in January 2003. He said he knew the whole time that he had the winning ticket and he had fun listening to local speculation about the identity of the winner!
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