Mega Millions Jackpot Surpasses $300M for Upcoming Drawing

The grand prize from the popular American lottery game, Mega Millions, survived the latest drawing on Tuesday. Regretfully, nobody was able to guess correctly the winning numbers, 3, 9, 14, 26, 51 and the gold Mega ball 21 for an estimated jackpot of $279 million.

On the bright side, surviving on Tuesday, the jackpot has now grown and its estimate surpasses the mind-blowing $300 million for the upcoming draw. According to Mega Millions, the jackpot for the upcoming drawing scheduled for Friday, July 26, would be an estimated $306 million.

The aforementioned jackpot is awarded in full in case the lucky winner selects the annuity option. If somebody guesses correctly all winning numbers on the next draw and picks a cash option, they would be able to collect a lump cash sum of nearly $144 million.

Drawings for Mega Ball are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 PM ET. The overall chances of winning a prize from the popular lottery game are 1 in 24. However, the odds of securing the Mega Ball jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

The odds for the game do not change regardless of how many people participate in a particular draw. The cost for a Mega Millions ticket is $2 per play. Paying an extra buck allows lottery players to gain access to the game’s Megaplier option which boosts non-jackpot prizes between 2x and 5x.

A Number of Lucky Winners Secure Prizes That Vary in Size

Although the grand prize survived, several lucky winners secured seven-figure prizes from the latest draw. Five winners from Connecticut and Virginia matched five winning numbers from the latest draw, allowing them to secure a prize of $1 million each.

On the other hand, three lucky players won a $4 million Megaplier prize each. There was a single winner in Indiana, Oregon and New Jersey with each benefitting from the 4x Megaplier that boosted their win from $1 million to $4 million.

Nearly two dozen players secured $10,000 each for matching correctly four white balls along with the gold Mega ball. A total of 19 such players won $10,000 each from the recent draw. Three fortunate players paid extra for the Megaplier option, granting them $40,000 each.

As usual, the lowest prize tier contained the highest number of winners. Nearly 407,000 people guessed correctly only the gold Mega ball to secure a $2 prize each. Overall, more than 780,000 lottery players won prizes from the recent Mega Millions drawing.