The holiday shopping season is heating up — at least for Mega Millions lottery ticket buyers — as officials announce that the estimated jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing has surpassed $500 million.
After no lucky winners held a ticket that matched all six numbers in the previous drawing held on Friday, lottery officials estimate Tuesday’s prize at $565 million — or more than $293 million if delivered in cash — as of late Monday.
The drawing will take place at 11 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
The last Mega Millions jackpot of $502 million was shared by tickets sold in California and Florida for an Oct. 14 drawing. Since then, the top prize has been steadily increasing over the course of 20 drawings.
According to lottery officials, 11 jackpots of $500 million or more have been won since Mega Millions debuted in 2002. The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was more than $1.5 billion in 2018, and a jackpot exceeding $1.3 billion was won in Illinois in July.
The largest lottery jackpot ever won in the United States was $2.04 billion in November. The lucky Powerball ticket was purchased in Southern California by the winner.
