No winners in Mega Millions lottery; jackpot grows to $508 million

ATLANTA, July 6 (UPI) -- With no winning ticket in Tuesday's Mega Millions lottery drawing, Friday's jackpot climbed to an estimated $508 million.

The chosen numbers in the multi-state lottery -- 29, 46, 53, 64 and 73, with 10 as the mega-ball number -- was the 34th consecutive drawing without a winner. The prize money increases with the number of tickets sold, but Wednesday morning it stood at $508 million awarded in 29 annual payments, or $357 million if taken as a lump sum. Winners must match all the numbers on their $1 tickets to numbers picked at random in a televised drawing.

The odds of striking it rich are one in 259 million, and the jackpot in Friday's 11 p.m. drawing will be, at least, the seventh largest lottery of all time. A payout in Powerball, the other multi-state lottery, in January yielded $1.6 billion.

Tuesday's drawing had seven winners of a $1 million prize, obtained by correctly choosing the five numbers but not the mega-ball; their tickets were sold in California, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.