A year-end countdown as Mega Millions Jackpot grows to nearly $1 billion
CNN
While shoppers rush to find the perfect holiday gift, the real treasure might just be hidden in one lucky lottery ticket. Tonight’s Mega Millions drawing could yield a jackpot nearing $1 billion,
While shoppers rush to find the perfect holiday gift, the real treasure might just be hidden in one lucky lottery ticket. That’s because tonight’s Mega Millions drawing could yield a jackpot nearing $1 billion – the largest prize ever offered in the month of December. The Mega Millions jackpot surged to $862 million on Friday, Joshua Johnston, the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, told CNN, jumping up $37 million from a jackpot initially projected to be $825 million. If someone wins on Friday, the lucky winner can choose to take home a lump sum of $392.1 million. “I would love to be the family members of the person that won that – your Christmas is gonna be amazing!” Johnston said. “There’s just really not a product on the market for two bucks that will give you an opportunity throughout the course of a few days to just kind of imagine and dream what it would be like to win that sum of money,” he said. “And that’s just so much fun to think about, especially around the holidays, when there’s already a sense of magic in the air.” Friday’s drawing is part of what the Mega Millions organization is calling the “most unusual jackpot year.” Since Mega Millions began in 2002, there has never been a single year where all jackpots won ranked among the top 10 largest prizes awarded at the time. This means that 2024 has been a year of extraordinary, record-breaking jackpots. Let’s break it down.