[While shoppers rush to find the perfect holiday gift, the real treasure might just be hidden in one lucky lottery ticket. Tonight’s Mega Millions drawing could yield a jackpot nearing $1 billion – the largest prize ever offered in the month of December.
The Mega Millions jackpot surged to $862 million on Friday, jumping up $37 million from a jackpot initially projected to be $825 million. If someone wins on Friday, the lucky winner can choose to take home a lump sum of $392.1 million.
“This is just so much fun to think about, especially around the holidays, when there’s already a sense of magic in the air,” said Joshua Johnston, the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium.
Friday’s drawing is part of what the Mega Millions organization is calling the “most unusual jackpot year.” Since Mega Millions began in 2002, there has never been a single year where all jackpots won ranked among the top 10 largest prizes awarded at the time.
This year has been a year of extraordinary, record-breaking jackpots. In September, a Houston-area resident claimed a $800 million Mega Millions jackpot prize, while in June, an anonymous player in Illinois took home $552 million after purchasing the winning ticket online. In March, a New Jersey ticket holder won $1.13 billion.
Historically, December has been a pretty lucky month for players, with 13 jackpots won during the holiday season. However, the odds of winning on Christmas Day haven’t been as high. No one has ever won a jackpot on Christmas Day, according to the Mega Millions organization.
“We tend to see sales go up during the holidays,” Johnston explained, adding that the bump in ticket sales happens as people are out and about shopping. “But what’s super cool about this particular one is, I mean, we’re at $862 million and a person can come in and walk out with $392.1 million.”
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