Mega Millions Jackpot: It’s a Billion — With a ‘B’
Update 3:45 p.m. Friday: The Mega Millions has hit the billion-dollar mark.
Update, 1:45 p.m. Thursday: The Mega Millions keeps growing. Now the jackpot is $970 million.
Meanwhile, no one won the Powerball in Wednesday night’s drawing, and its jackpot has reached $430 million.
Original post: The Mega Millions jackpot has reached a record $900 million on Wednesday.
The jackpot has been growing since July 24, when a California office pool of 11 co-workers shared the $543 million jackpot, the largest prize ever won on a single ticket in the game, according to the Maryland Lottery.
Three other Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year – $451 million on Jan. 5 in Florida, $533 million on March 30 in New Jersey, and $142 million on May 4 in Ohio.
Sales have been brisk, lottery spokesman Seth Elkins said.
“As the jackpot picks up, there’s more and more excitement about it and it does drive sales,” he said.
State figures say the sales totaled just more than $3.6 million, with more than $500,000 during the hour between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
When no one picked the right six numbers in Tuesday night’s drawing, the jackpot climbed to $868 million. Sales pushed the jackpot to $900 million, Elkins said.
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