Mega Millions Rolls Over Again, Estimated $687 Million Jackpot For Friday’s Drawing

Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing did not produce a perfect six-for-six match, meaning the jackpot has now rolled over 25 straight times and will reach an estimated $687 million for the next drawing.

If there is a winner coming out of that drawing on Friday, it would be the sixth-largest jackpot win in Mega Millions history.

Tuesday’s drawing saw white balls 2, 49, 50, 61, and 70 pop up, along with 14 for the gold Mega Ball.

With so many high numbers among the white balls, it’s not terribly surprising that there were no winners; as economist Victor Matheson told Lottery Geeks recently, lottery players who choose their own numbers often gravitate toward numbers between 1 and 31 “because lots of people play birthdays.”

There also was just one seven on the board and there were no eights, the most common “lucky numbers” among various populations.

Two newly minted millionaires (before taxes)

Still, just because nobody won the grand prize Tuesday doesn’t mean there weren’t any winners.

Two tickets — one sold in Michigan and one in California — matched the five white balls (but not the Mega Ball) to win a cool $1 million each.

Another 23 tickets paired a winning Mega Ball with four matching white balls, winning either $10,000 or $20,000 depending on whether they paid the extra $1 (on top of the $2 cost of the ticket) to play the Megaplier. On Tuesday, 2X was drawn for the Megaplier — the worst possible outcome for those otherwise lucky winners, as the Megaplier possibilities are 2X, 3X, 4X, and 5X.

According to Mega Millions, there were 1,174,495 tickets that won at least a minimal prize in Tuesday’s drawing.

The last Mega Millions jackpot win came on Dec. 8. Three months later to the day, on Friday, the jackpot will sit at an estimated $687 million, which translates to an estimated $332.3 million as a lump-sum cash prize.

The all-time Mega Millions jackpot record is $1.602 billion, awarded last Aug. 8, which broke a record that had stood for nearly five years.