Even if you don't take home the Mega Millions $1.35 billion jackpot Friday, you still could win millions in prizes.
With the last draw on Tuesday, 16 ticket holders across the U.S. won between $1 million and $3 million in prize money.
The winners matched the numbers on five of the six white balls drawn — the odds of which are 1 in 12,607,306. Those odds are much better than matching all six balls to win the jackpot, which is an astronomical 1 in 302,575,350, according to the consortium that runs the lottery.
Either way, you'd need a lot of luck to win: With one in a million odds, you're much more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year than win these prizes, according to odds provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The total winnings for matching five white balls also depends on whether you pay $1 extra for the lottery's Megaplier wager, which multiplies winnings for non-jackpot prizes by two to five times the prize amount.
Before each Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday and Friday nights, the Megaplier is drawn. For Tuesday's draw, the Megaplier was three, which meant that three winners won $3 million rather than the standard prize of $1 million.
Other prize amounts can be won, too. Below are the winnings for matching at least some of the numbers in a given draw, excluding the Megaplier:
- Matching four white balls and the gold Mega Ball: $10,000
- Matching four white balls: $500
- Matching three white balls and the gold Mega Ball: $200
- Matching three white balls: $100
- Matching two white balls and the gold Mega Ball: $10
- Matching one white ball and the gold Mega Ball: $2
- Matching the gold Mega Ball: $2
In Tuesday's draw, 215 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win at least $10,000. And 41 of those tickets were worth $30,000 each because they also included the optional Megaplier, the lottery says.
The next draw is scheduled for Friday at 11 p.m., E.T. The jackpot hasn't been won since Oct. 14, 2022, and will keep growing until an extremely lucky ticket holder matches all six numbers drawn.
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