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Mega Millions jackpot estimated to reach $1.6 billion

By Sommer Brokaw
A man filled out a lottery ticket for Friday's New York Mega Millions jackpot which stood at $1 billion. The Mega Millions jackpot is increasing to $1.6 billion in the next drawing Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
A man filled out a lottery ticket for Friday's New York Mega Millions jackpot which stood at $1 billion. The Mega Millions jackpot is increasing to $1.6 billion in the next drawing Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- With no winner Friday night in Mega Millions, the jackpot has climbed to a record $1.6 billion.

The jackpot had already grown to the largest amount in the game's history and the second-largest overall lottery payout Friday at $1 billion, but no ticket matched the six numbers drawn, 15, 23, 53, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 7, allowing the jackpot to surge to $1.6 billion.

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The jackpot now surpasses the largest U.S. payout, previously set at $1.59 billion in a Powerball jackpot in January 2016.

The next drawing is 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 23

Players purchase tickets for $2 and must match all five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win the jackpot. The odds of winning are 1 in 302.6 million.

The odds of winning have gotten worse since last October because of changes made to the game to make payouts less frequent. Before last October, the odds of winning were 1 in 258.9 million.

Gordon Medenica, Maryland's lottery director, told the Washington Post that officials worried smaller and more more frequent prizes would result in "jackpot fatigue," leading to the changes last year.

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With the worse odds of winning, no one has won Mega Millions since July 24 when a group of 11 co-workers in Santa Clara County, Calif., claimed a $543 million prize in the third-largest Mega Millions payout on record.

The largest Mega Millions prize awarded on record was $656 million on March 30, 2012, to three winning tickets including one in Kansas, another in Illinois and another in Maryland. The second-highest was $648 million in December 2013 to two winning tickets, one in California and one in Georgia.

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