Close But No Cigar: Five Draw Lottery Millionaires So Far This Week, No Jackpots

To paraphrase, update, and recalculate a Meat Loaf lyric: Five out of six ain’t bad.

In the Monday Powerball drawing and the Tuesday Mega Millions drawing, quite a few ticketholders were aligned perfectly with the five white balls drawn but came up one magic number short of a life-changing jackpot.

Still, one assumes none of those lottery players are complaining about turning two bucks into a million this week.

Texas is not just experiencing intense literal heat this summer; the state is also red-hot in lottery play, with three of the five new millionaires coming from the Lone Star State. For Powerball on Monday, there were three Match 5 winners, and two were from Texas. The third winning ticket was sold in Georgia. The next night for Mega Millions, two customers scored million-dollar wins, one in Texas and one in Illinois.

None of the Match 5 winners paid the extra dollar for the Megaplier or Power Play, which could have turned them into instant multi-millionaires.

Jacked-up jackpots

The progressive jackpots will keep rising until someone goes for 6-for-6. Mega Millions is now at 16 straight draws without a grand-prize winner, while Powerball’s winless streak has reached 11.

For Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing, the jackpot sits at an estimated $154 million (cash value: $73.3 million). The next Mega Millions drawing is Friday and it offers an estimated jackpot of $358 million (cash option: $169.7 million).

This is the first time the two jackpots combined have been over $500 million since Mega Millions was won for $552 million on June 4.

Lottery Geeks estimates about 7.4 million tickets were purchased for Monday’s Powerball game, a number dwarfed by the estimated 16.8 million sold for Tuesday’s Mega Millions.

Tickets for either lottery cost $2, with the option in most states to play the Megaplier or Power Play multiplier for an additional $1.

Tickets for both lotteries are available in every state except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Tickets are also sold in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and — for Powerball only — Puerto Rico.

All-Time Biggest Jackpots

Here is a list of the all-time top 10 U.S. lottery jackpots:

1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022, won in California
2. $1.76 billion, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023, won in California
3. $1.6 billion, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023, won in Florida
4. $1.59 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016, won in California, Florida, and Tennessee
5. $1.54 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018, won in South Carolina
6. $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023, won in Maine
7. $1.34 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022, won in Illinois
8. $1.33 billion, Powerball, April 6, 2024, won in Oregon
9. $1.13 billion, Mega Millions, March 26, 2024, won in New Jersey
10. $1.08 billion, Powerball, July 19, 2023, won in California

And here’s the all-time top 10 by lump-sum cash value:

1. $997.6 million, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022, won in California
2. $983.5 million, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016, won in California, Florida, and Tennessee
3. $877.8 million, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018, won in South Carolina
4. $794.2 million, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023, won in Florida
5. $780.5 million, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022, won in Illinois
6. $776.6 million, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021, won in Michigan
7. $774.1 million, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023, won in California
8. $723.5 million, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023, won in Maine
9. $621 million, Powerball, April 6, 2024, won in Oregon
10. $558.1 million, Powerball, July 19, 2023, won in California