MIAMI — Mega Millions tickets sold in Illinois and New Jersey win $1 million and narrowly missed the $306 million jackpot, lottery officials say.
The tickets matched five winning numbers but not the Mega Ball in the drawing Friday, July 26, the national Mega Millions site said.
A ticket sold in California, which adjusts lottery prizes based on the number of tickets sold and number of winners, also matched five numbers to win $415,055, McClatchy News reported.
Nobody won the grand prize, which rises to an estimated $331 million, with a cash option of approximately $156.2 million, for the next drawing Tuesday, July 30, the national site said. The winning numbers were 2, 14, 33, 58 and 65 with a Mega Ball of 3. The Megaplier was 3.
Nearly 725,000 other tickets sold in the United States won prizes ranging from $2 to $30,000 in the drawing, the lottery said. The Mega Millions jackpot has gone unclaimed since June 4, when an Illinois player hit the $552 million grand prize, lottery officials said.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MEGA MILLIONS
To score a jackpot in the Mega Millions, a player must match all five white balls and the gold Mega Ball.
The odds of scoring a jackpot prize are 1 in 302,575,350.
Tickets cost $2 and can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times vary by state.
Drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
By DON SWEENEY/Miami Herald