Mega Millions Drawing for Friday, 29-07-2022 worth $1.28 billion with a jackpot. In history, it's the most significant jackpot Mega Millions of the year.
As of Friday, the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to an estimated $1.28 billion, and it would be the second-largest in the game's 20-year history and the third-largest of any U.S. lottery game, according to the game's website.
The record for the Mega Millions jackpot is $1.537 billion, won by a ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018. It remains the second largest jackpot for any lottery game, and it is the world's largest lottery prize with just one ticket, according to MegaMillions.
The largest jackpot of any US lottery game was $1.586 billion -- a Powerball prize from January 13, 2016, shared by winners in California, Florida, and Tennessee.
Timothy Schultz, who won the $28 million Powerball jackpot in 1999 and now hosts a lottery podcast, said winning "can change your life."
He said after checking his numbers in the newspaper and realizing he had won, the first calls he made were from some lawyers and financial advisers.
"It can change a lot, relationships, your ability to live," he said. "I think it can buy time, which can be invaluable. And, you know, it's one of the most real life-changing things that can happen to somebody."
Working with a financial advisor will benefit those who have no experience with millions because an advisor will help winners understand what they can realistically do with the winnings, he said.
Schultz said he didn't consider himself materialistic before he won, so his most extravagant purchases were a few cars and real estate.
"I've found for myself and for many people I've met and interviewed that if you win the lottery jackpot it enhances, or can enhance, your personality. It's not necessarily who you are, It doesn't change," he said.
He said that while he rarely plays the lottery these days, he bought a ticket for Friday night's drawing.
MegaMillions jackpots start at $20 million for an annual prize and grow based on game sales and interest rates on 30-year U.S. Treasuries. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
There are seven other less valuable prizes that depend on how many and what kind of balls the ticket yields. The odds of winning the $1 million runner-up prize -- if the ticket matches five white balls but not the Mega Millions ball -- is 1 in 12,607,306.
Mega Millions of tickets are sold in all 45 states, Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands with drawings on Tuesday and Friday. Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and DC, but the buyer must be in that state.
