Mega Millions Jackpot This Weekend Offers A Chance To Go Your Own Way

The amount of money someone may win in Friday’s Mega Millions lottery is $281 million.

And if Stevie Nicks won the lottery and then promised to give Lindsey Buckingham a dollar for every chance she gave him to clean up his act in order to stay in Fleetwood Mac, she’d still be $19 million short.

Yes, in a new Rolling Stone interview, Nicks said that she and the band wanted Buckingham to stay, and gave him “300 million chances” to make things right, but …

Well, but they fired him. Womp womp. That’s 300 million chances, down the drain.

But you only need one chance to win Mega Millions and its $281 million jackpot (with a cash option of $129.8 million) Friday night.

No one took home the big jackpot Tuesday, when it was potentially worth $250 million. But one lucky ticket-buyer in Florida did match all five white balls to capture a million-dollar prize.

The winning numbers for Tuesday’s drawing were 16, 22, 26, 36, and 56 with a gold Mega Ball of 1.

Lottery Geeks estimates some 13.4 million tickets were sold for the drawing.

Friday’s drawing will be the 15th since the last Mega Millions jackpot winner — which was for over $800 million — hit on Sept. 10 with a ticket sold in Texas.

Powerball picking back up

Meanwhile in Powerball, nobody won the jackpot on Wednesday — winning numbers were 13, 22, 29, 43, and 58, with a red Powerball of 22 — thereby pushing Saturday’s jackpot to $54 million (with a cash value of $25.8 million).

This will be the fourth drawing since the last jackpot was won just over a week ago.

For Wednesday’s drawing, one California ticket buyer hit the Match 5, winning themselves a million-dollar prize.

Lottery Geeks estimates some 7 million tickets were sold for Wednesday’s draw.

Tickets for either lottery cost $2, with most states offering a prize multiplier option for an additional $1.

Both Powerball and Mega Millions are legal in all states except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Tickets for both draw games are also sold in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while in Puerto Rico, customers can buy tickets for Powerball, but not for Mega Millions.

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