There were no tickets sold with all six numbers in the latest drawing of the multi-state Mega Millions lottery, pushing the estimated jackpot for Friday’s drawing to $977 million, the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot.
A ticket with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, was sold at Lichine’s Liquor & Deli in Sacramento and is worth $1,748,612, the California Lottery announced.
While tickets with five numbers but missing the Mega number sold in other states are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners.
There were three other tickets sold with five numbers but missing the Mega number, one each sold in Florida, Texas and Virginia. They are each worth $1 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
The numbers drawn Tuesday were 24, 46, 49, 62, 66, and the Mega number was 7. The estimated jackpot was $893 million, also the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot and sixth-largest in the history of the Mega Millions game, which began in 1996 as The Big Game and was given the new name Mega Millions in 2002. There have been four Powerball drawings with larger jackpots.
The drawing was the 29th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number are 1 in 302,575,350, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.
The Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.
Friday’s drawing will be held at 8 p.m. Pacific time.