Mega Millions jackpot fourth largest in history at $1.25bn

The Mega Millions lottery draw climbed to a whopping $1.25bn after no one could beat the odds on Tuesday night to win the $1.1bn jackpot in the multistate draw. The winning number for the last evening draw were 8, 24, 30, 45, 61, and the Mega Ball number 12. According to Mega Millions, no one has won the jackpot since 18 April, allowing it to grow larger and larger. The $1.25 billion prize is now the fourth-largest ever in US history, according to CBS News , and is expected to jump further, if no one manages to match the winning draw. Tuesday night’s drawing for $1.1bn was the 30th straight without a winner. The person scoring the winning draw must match the correct six double-digit numbers on a $2 ticket. But the odds of winning are minuscule: a buyer of a single Mega Millions lottery ticket has about a 1-in-300 million chance of containing all the correct numbers. The odds of winning smaller prizes, ranging from $2 to $1m, are significantly better. If there is a single winner on Friday, the lucky ticket holder can have the estimated jackpot paid out over 30 years, or receive an estimated $625.3m lump sum payment. For Tuesday, the total estimate was $550.2m. Yet this amount was only about half the size of a $2.04bn Powerball jackpot won by a single-ticket holder in California in November 2022, which ranks as the largest lottery prize total in US history. Additional reporting from the wires