RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - The Mega Millions jackpot has climbed to $970 million, the Virginia Lottery announced Thursday.
The jackpot was already at a record level for the game before Tuesday’s drawing.
Virginia Lottery officials say more than 132,000 people tickets purchased in the Commonwealth won prizes on Tuesday night, ranging from $2 to $10,000.
The $10,000 winning tickets were sold in Haymarket and Bristol.
No one has won the jackpot since July.
The next drawing is Friday night.
In addition to the nearly $1 billion jackpot, PowerBall is also seeing an increase in its jackpot.
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(RNN) – No one won the record-setting $667 million Mega Millions jackpot, so the grand prize has soared more than $200 million for the next drawing.
Tuesday’s drawing marked the 24th consecutive one where nobody matched all six numbers drawn.
Because no tickets matched all six numbers, the jackpot increased to the whopping sum of $868 million.
The jackpot has been growing since July 24 when a group of 11 office workers in San Jose, CA, beat the odds and won $543 million. They agreed to split the winnings and continue working.
To claim the top prize will take a lot of luck: the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about one in 303 million.
The winning numbers for Tuesday’s drawing were 69, 45, 61, 3 and 49. The Mega Ball number was 9.
Nine tickets won the lottery’s second prize of $1 million by matching all the numbers except the Mega Ball number, according to Mega Millions. One of the tickets, sold in Texas, included an optional multiplier that increased the winnings to $5 million.
The next drawing will be held Friday at 11 p.m. ET. If some lucky person - or people - wins the huge jackpot, the grand prize will reset to $40 million.
The jackpot winner will need to match numbers on all five white balls and the Mega Ball.
Jackpot winners have a choice to make: cash or annuity. Those who take the cash will receive a one-time lump-sum equal to all the cash in the prize pool – which is $494 million for Friday’s drawing.
Those who opt for the annuity will get an immediate payment and then 29 annual payments, each 5 percent larger than the last.
The second-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was won in March 2012. Three winners across three states split the record $656 million prize.
Mega Millions is available in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Alabama and Mississippi do not participate.
Of course, you could also enter the Powerball drawing on Wednesday. That jackpot has reached an estimated $345 million.
Together, the two jackpots top $1 billion.
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