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There have been 28 straight Mega Millions drawings without a jackpot winner.
WASHINGTON — It's highly likely we'll see another billion-dollar jackpot in the coming days, with $940 million on the line in Friday night's Mega Millions drawing.
The game's giant prizes come with miniscule chances of actually winning — winners overcome odds of roughly 1 in 302.6 million. That's not deterring players, though, and those small odds are what makes huge jackpots as the prize rolls over each time.
The prize is now the eighth-largest U.S. lottery prize and the fifth-largest in Mega Millions history. July has been a hot month for lottery prizes after a ticket sold in downtown Los Angeles won the $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot.
Mega Millions hasn't seen a grand prize winner since April 18, when a 71-year-old man from New York won the state's largest Mega Millions jackpot ever. Johnnie Taylor of Howard Beach in Queens, New York, won $476 million but opted for the cash option — a lump sum of more than $157 million after taxes.
Since mid-April, there have been 28 drawings without a grand prize winner.
Winners almost always take the cash option, but they do have a choice to instead get the full amount in regular payments over 29 years. The cash option for Tuesday's drawing is $422 million.
Mega Millions winning numbers for July 28, 2023:
The winning numbers were: 5-10-28-52-63, Mega Ball: 18 and Megaplier: 5.
When is the Mega Millions drawing?
Mega Millions drawings take place on Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
What are the largest lottery jackpots ever?
- $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 (one ticket, from Maine)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.08 billion, Powerball, July 19, 2023 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $940 million, Mega Millions (estimated), July 28, 2023
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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