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Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $1.05 billion after another drawing without a big winner

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Published July 29, 2023
Updated July 29, 2023, 5:16 p.m. ET

The Mega Millions jackpot is now more than $1 billion, and New Yorkers are running to their local supermarkets and bodegas hoping they’ll be the lucky one to purchase the golden ticket.

The $1.05 billion prize up for grabs in the next drawing Tuesday night will tie for fourth-largest payday in the game’s history if there’s a winner, and many are already dreaming up how they’ll spend the loot. 

Anita Watkins, a 69-year-old nurse who lives in Brighton Beach, said she hopes to win so she could pay off her daughter’s student loans, make yearly $30,000 donations to St. Jude Children’s Cancer Hospital and buy plenty of land in upstate New York to build homes for her large immediate family that includes six brothers and sisters.

“It would have whatever comforts they need. I need a lake; I need a forest green-type area,” fantasized Watkins after buying a Mega Millions ticket at a Brighton Beach Avenue deli.

“Also, I would go to London. I’ve never been out of the country. I don’t even know why. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

The Mega Millions prize reached the billions for the fifth time in history.
The Mega Millions prize reached the billions for the fifth time in history. AP

At Merinda’s Deli in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Mega Millions players were also thinking really big.

Justin Benson, 56, said he’d splurge on buying a private jet.

“It’ll be private jet time,” the construction worker said. “Oh yeah, for sure!”

One ticket in Pennsylvania was worth $5 million and another was worth $1 million.
One ticket in Pennsylvania was worth $5 million and another was worth $1 million. AP

“If I’m winning I’m gonna get my hair done and my nails, too! And then I’m quitting my job and moving to [the island] Jamaica,” crowed Shavonne Jackson, 27, who works for Burger King.

The Mega Millions jackpot exceeded the billion-dollar threshold for only the fifth time in its history Friday night, after no one beat the massive odds to match all six numbers for an estimated $940 million jackpot. The numbers drawn were: 5, 10, 28, 52, 63 and the gold ball 18.

It marked 29 straight draws without a Mega Millions jackpot winner since the last grand prize ticket on April 18.

The $1.05 billion prize up would be for a sole winner choosing to be paid through an annuity, with annual payments over 30 years. However, jackpot winners typically opt for a lump sum payout, which for Tuesday’s drawing is an estimated $527.9 million.

The top Mega Millions jackpot was a $1.537 billion prize won in South Carolina in October 2018, followed by a $1.348 billion winner sold in Maine in January, and a $1.337 billion prize handed out in July 2022 in Illinois. There was also a $1.05 billion jackpot won in Michigan in January 2022. (https://www.megamillions.com/News/2023/Jackpot-Surges-Past-$1-Billion.aspx)

On July 19, someone in Los Angeles won a $1.08 billion Powerball prize that ranked as the sixth-largest prize in U.S. history. The winner is still a mystery.

For Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million.

Winners also would be subject to federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery winnings.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.