Mega Millions Jackpot Nears $500M as Friday Drawing Looms

The Mega Millions jackpot is now nearing half a billion dollars as the next drawing approaches. While Powerball’s top prize just landed, the Mega Millions jackpot remains elusive.

A Single Six-Figure Prize Landed on Tuesday

The Tuesday Mega Millions drawing was another rather uneventful one, with no winners of either the jackpot or the game’s second-tier prize. However, the recent Powerball jackpot win has emboldened players ahead of the Friday drawing.

The winning white numbers for Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing were 7, 21, 53, 54, and 62. The Mega Ball, on the other hand, landed on 16. At the time of the drawing, the top prize stood at $473 million with a cash option of $221.8 million.

This winning combination was not what most players guessed, as shown by the lack of a big winner. While no player guessed all five white numbers to win a seven-figure sum either, nine players did manage to nail four white numbers and the Mega Ball. As a result, all of them will get various prizes, depending on their active multiplier. Five of these players will therefore get $20,000 each (2X multiplier), two will get $30,000 each (3X multiplier), and a single player will get $40,000 (4X multiplier). In addition to that, one lucky player will take home $100,000 thanks to their 10X multiplier.

The Mega Millions jackpot is now standing at $497 million, with a cash option of $232.6 million. The next drawing is set to take place today, at 11 pm ET.

Illinois Players Win Big from the Lottery’s FastPlay Games

In other lottery-related news, the Illinois Lottery’s FastPlay Ultimate Diamond Jackpot Game just awarded a $1,694,919 jackpot to a lucky player.

This was notably the second FastPlay jackpot to land in two weeks, coming shortly after another player won $1,497,172 from the Cash Castle game.