Mega Millions prize soars to $1.15 billion, the highest ever in month of December
Mega Millions prize soars to $1.15 billion, the highest ever in month of December
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If a winner is drawn this week, they’ll win the fifth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot hit a record-high for the month of December after no winners were selected in their Christmas Eve drawing. The Mega Millions jackpot is now around $1.15 billion ($516.1 million in cash), the highest-ever amount offered in December. The next drawing is on Friday.
![[The next Mega Millions drawing is scheduled for Friday]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/25/22/GettyImages-1585152619-%281%29.jpg)
“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15 billion jackpot,” Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holidays – whether Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, or any other way people choose to celebrate the season – than by helping fulfill the dreams that come with a prize like this and prizes that will be won at all levels of the game,” he added.
Christmas Eve wasn’t entirely without winners, however. The organization said there were 4,292,338 winning tickets across all non-jackpot prize levels. Four tickets — sold in California, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wyoming — won the second-tier prize.
The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24, while the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, the organization said. The winner, who will receive the prize’s cash value of $537.5 million before taxes, has chosen to stay anonymous.
