With no jackpot winner in last night’s drawing, the Mega Millions® jackpot has grown even further and is now the fifth largest in the game’s history. It stands at an estimated $820 million annuity, $422 million cash option for its next drawing on Tuesday.
In addition to being one of the biggest jackpots in Mega Millions, the giant prize is now the eighth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot. And it follows the $1.08 billion Powerball® jackpot won in that game’s drawing on Wednesday.
The Mega Millions jackpot has reached this level because it has been growing for more than three months. It was last won on April 18.
Demonstrating the random nature of lottery games, the Mega Millions jackpot was won six times in all of 2022 but has already been won six times this year. The game’s drawings occur at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The Latest Winning Numbers and Iowa Sales and Prizes
Iowa Lottery players won a total of 19,759 prizes in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing.
The winning numbers that night were: 29-40-47-50-57 and Mega Ball 25. The Megaplier® number was 2.
A player wins the Mega Millions jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing. However, there are a total of nine prize levels in the game ranging from $2 up to the jackpot, so the Iowa Lottery reminds its players to check their tickets for all the prizes they may have won.
Iowa Lottery players bought more than $1.1 million in Mega Millions tickets for Friday’s drawing. But the average Mega Millions purchase in Iowa for the drawing remained about three plays per ticket. Lottery officials were pleased that a lot of people had fun playing and didn’t go overboard.
Easy Picks vs. Your Own Numbers
The vast majority of tickets purchased in games like Mega Millions and Powerball are easy-pick plays, meaning that the lottery terminal assigns the numbers printed on the ticket. About 93 percent of the Iowa plays for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing were easy picks.
But players also can choose their own numbers. They choose five numbers from a pool of 1 to 70 for the white balls and one number from a separate pool of 25 for the yellow Mega Ball.
Neither option is luckier. The odds of winning are the same for every ticket purchased in the game. There are more winners from easy-pick tickets simply because the vast majority of tickets purchased are easy picks.
Please Play Responsibly
And as always, we remind everyone that it only takes one ticket to win. Please have fun in this big-jackpot moment and stay within your means as you play.
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