Oct. 19 (UPI) — The Mega Millions jackpot is now worth $970 million — the largest amount in the game’s history and the second-largest U.S. payout ever.
Lottery players will find out Friday at 11 p.m. if anyone will claim the massive prize, which is getting close to the all-time lottery jackpot record — a Powerball jackpot that paid out $1.59 billion in January 2016.
The Mega Millions pot has soared passed the game’s previous record, $656 million in 2012, and has continued to grow with each drawing.
The new $970 million jackpot has a cash option of $548 million, before taxes.
No one has won the Mega Millions jackpot since July 24, when 11 co-workers in Santa Clara County, Calif., created a pool to share the $543 million prize. That total was the fourth-largest in the game’s history.
The country’s other nationwide lottery contest, Powerball, saw its jackpot increase Wednesday night to $430 million with a cash option of $248 million. A New York man last won that jackpot in August.
Powerball will hold its next drawing on Saturday night, when the jackpot could possibly grow larger.
If anyone is counting, that is $1.4 billion awaiting winners between the Mega Millions and Powerball pots.
“It’s always a thrill to have both jackpots rolling, but there’s an extra spark now with Mega Millions reaching a new record,” Gordon Medenica, Mega Millions lead director and Maryland Lottery gaming director, said in a statement this week.
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