If you’re in the New York and New Jersey area, you might want to check your Powerball tickets to see if you’re a millionaire.
In the recent multistate Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday night, participants had the chance to win an astounding estimated jackpot of $1.1 billion, making it one of the largest jackpots in the lottery’s history.
The drawing took place at 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT Wednesday) and revealed the winning numbers: 8, 24, 30, 45, 61, and the Mega Ball number 12. However, no winners were announced immediately after the drawing.
Remarkably, this was the 30th drawing since the last Mega Millions jackpot winner, which occurred back in April. To claim the grand prize, the winner or winners must match all six double-digit numbers on a $2 ticket.
If there happens to be a single winner from Tuesday’s drawing, that lucky individual has the option to either receive the estimated jackpot paid out over 30 years or take a substantial lump sum payment of approximately $550.2 million.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are extraordinarily slim, with a buyer of a single lottery ticket facing about a 1-in-300 million chance of getting all the correct numbers.
Although this jackpot is among the highest prizes ever offered in Mega Millions history, it falls short of the record set by a $1.537 billion jackpot won by a single ticket holder in South Carolina in 2018.
Comparatively, Tuesday’s jackpot is only about half the size of a staggering $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot that was won by a single-ticket holder in California in November 2022, which remains the largest lottery prize total in the history of the United States.