A billion dollars would be the perfect way to ring in the new year.
No one hit the jackpot on Christmas Eve when the final Mega Millions drawing brought the jackpot closer to 10, so it's now at least $1.15 billion, the fifth-largest prize in the game's history.
The next drawing is on Friday and if one lucky person wins, they could receive a cool $516 million in cash, according to the game's organizers.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302 million, according to lottery organizers, and the last Mega Millions jackpot was won in Texas on September 10 for $810 million. Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.
Friday's drawing is at 8 pm
Any tickets that match all six numbers will have up to one year to claim a prize.
Last December, someone bought two winning Mega Millions tickets at a Chevron gas station in Encino for a prize of $197.5 million.
A person had a year to claim their prize but that deadline has passed and most of the money was returned to other states that contributed to the pot, officials said, adding that part of the money went back to California schools.
In April, the price of a Mega Millions ticket will jump from $2 to $5. Game organizers say the odds of winning will improve, but they didn't have details on how that would work.
The largest lottery prize ever won in the United States was won by a Californian in 2022, when Edwin Castro bought a $2 Powerball ticket at an Altadena gas station and won a $2.04 billion jackpot. Since then he has purchased multi-million dollar homes in the Hollywood Hills and elsewhere.
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