AUSTIN – The 3:00 – 3:59 p.m. hour included $821,126 in Mega Millions draw sales.
Current hourly sales per minute in Texas are $13,685.
Texas Lottery® players can start their weekend by playing for one of the largest jackpot prizes in lottery history. After there were no winners for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions® drawing, the jackpot for the Friday, Jan. 6 drawing now stands at an estimated annuitized $940 million, the fourth largest jackpot prize in Mega Millions history and the sixth largest in U.S. lottery history. Tonight’s drawing offers a cash value worth an estimated $486 million. If there is no jackpot winner for tonight’s Mega Millions drawing, the jackpot prize for the Tuesday, Jan. 10 drawing will roll to an estimated annuitized $1.1 billion.
“As this Mega Millions jackpot gets closer to $1 billion, sales for the game have been robust over the last several days in Texas and we expect them to only get stronger ahead of this evening’s drawing,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “We know our players are excited to play for tonight’s jackpot and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that a Texan wins. However, we want to remind our players to play responsibly. Also, if it appears that you have the jackpot-winning ticket, we encourage you to sign the ticket, put it in a safe place, seek financial and legal advice and call the Texas Lottery to schedule an appointment to claim the prize.”
Friday’s drawing will be the 24th in the current Mega Millions jackpot run since starting as an estimated annuitized $20 million for the Oct. 18, 2022 drawing. This is the largest Mega Millions jackpot up for grabs since the July 29, 2022 drawing when it reached an advertised $1.28 billion – the game’s second-largest jackpot prize, which was won by an out of state player. A second-tier prize worth $1 million from that drawing has yet to be claimed by a Texas Lottery player and will expire on Jan. 25 at 5 p.m. local time if not claimed by the deadline. The winning ticket for the unclaimed prize was sold at Fuel Maxx #47, located at 420 University Drive, in Prairie View. A winning ticket worth $1 million for the same drawing was sold in Plano and has recently been claimed.
Texas has had 13 Mega Millions jackpot prize winners since it joined the game in 2003. Its most recent jackpot winner came in September 2019 when a Leander resident won an estimated annuitized $227 million, the largest prize ever paid out to a single Texas Lottery player.
In 2022, 13 Texas Lottery players won second-tier Mega Millions prizes of $1 million or larger. During the current jackpot roll, three Texas Lottery players have won second-tier Mega Millions prizes of $1 million or larger. A Whitesboro resident claimed a $3 million second-tier prize for the drawing held on Nov. 1, 2022. More recently, two second-tier prize winning tickets worth $1 million each were sold at the same retailer – Luck Zone, located at 1250 E. Palm Valley Blvd., in Round Rock – for the Dec. 20, 2022 and Jan. 3, 2023 drawings. Both of those prizes are yet to be claimed.
Mega Millions is played by choosing five numbers from a field of 70 and one Mega Ball number from the second field of 25 numbers. To win the Mega Millions jackpot, players must match all six numbers drawn including the Mega Ball. Players matching fewer numbers may not win the jackpot, but could still walk away winners. Mega Millions currently offers a $20 million starting jackpot and a second-tier (Match 5+0) prize of $1 million. By choosing the Megaplier® feature for $1 more per Play, players can multiply their non-jackpot winnings by two, three, four or five times, winning as much as $5 million.
Drawings are broadcast each Tuesday and Friday at 10:12 p.m. CT. Texas Lottery players can purchase Mega Millions tickets at more than 20,000 Texas Lottery retailers across the state. Ticket sales for the next Mega Millions drawing will close at 9:45 p.m. CT on Friday, Jan. 6. The retailer that sells a jackpot-winning Mega Millions ticket may be eligible to receive up to a $1 million retailer bonus.
