current powerball and mega millions jackpots

The most recent billion-dollar jackpot was won by a single player in California last week, who has yet to come forward to claim it, according to CBS News (perhaps they are getting their affairs in order first). $1.337 billion: Mega MillionsĪ single winner in Illinois won this jackpot, which was drawn in July 2022. One ticket holder in Maine won the jackpot in January of this year. $1.537 billion: Mega MillionsĪ single winner in South Carolina claimed the largest Mega Millions prize to date, which was drawn in October 2018. There were three winners for the second-largest jackpot in history, all of whom bought their own tickets from different vendors in California, Florida, and Tennessee. It is also the jackpot whose lump sum cash value is the closest to $1 billion, at $997.6 million. It was sold to a single ticket holder in California. The largest in lottery prize history was a Powerball jackpot from November 2022, although lottery officials did not reveal the winner’s name until February of this year. Here’s a rundown of billion-dollar lotto prizes. The annuity would pay out an average of $30.3 million per year over 30 years pretax. The current cash value for Friday’s estimated $910 million jackpot is actually $464.2 million, pretax. “These changes achieved their intended effect, significantly impacting the odds of hitting the jackpot and giving prizes a chance to more frequently grow,” says Akshay Khanna, CEO of, which sells state lottery tickets. Officials worried there was waning interest in the game and the larger pots would entice more people to buy critics say the rule changes are unfair to players.

The odds of winning the top prize changed from one in 258,890,850 to one in 302,575,350. Powerball players have a one-in-292-million chance of winning the jackpot.Ī couple of years later, Mega Millions rules were similarly changed to make jackpots pay out less frequently. That means the top prize keeps rolling over drawing after drawing, growing bigger and bigger in the process. Officials changed the number of balls to draw from, making it easier to win smaller prizes but harder to win a bigger pot. The Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates Powerball, changed the rules in 2015. It might seem like a crazy coincidence, but the larger jackpots are actually by design.

Current powerball and mega millions jackpots