Hang onto those stocking-stuffer lottery tickets.
The Mega Millions jackpot has surpassed $1 billion after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Christmas Eve. That means the estimated jackpot for Friday’s drawing is $1.15 billion, potentially the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.
People lined up in the U.S. to buy tickets for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions lottery drawing. The lottery’s website said the jackpot had reached $1 billion and this particular 7-Eleven convenience store in Chino Hills, near Los Angeles, drew many hopeful winners because of its reputation as a “lucky store,” known for selling big-winning lottery tickets in the past.
“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 Wednesday statement.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, while the odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24, according to lottery officials.
AP correspondent Julie Walker reports the Mega Millions jackpot is now worth over a billion dollars.
Tickets for the game are sold in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mega Millions tickets are $2 a piece. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold.
Drawings are held at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“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,” Johnston said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article