Jackpot enters ‘uncharted territory’ at record $1.6 billion

Yes, that headline is correct: The Mega Millions jackpot is at $1.6 billion. With a B.

All eyes were on the latest drawing Friday night, when the jackpot was at an already mind-boggling $1 billion. However, with no ticket matching all six numbers drawn - 15, 23, 53, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 7 - the grand prize now swells to $1.6 billion.

The next drawing is at 11 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

“Mega Millions has already entered historic territory, but it’s truly astounding to think that now the jackpot has reached an all-time world record,” Gordon Medenica, lead director of the Mega Millions Group and director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming, said in a statement. “It’s hard to overstate how exciting this is - but now it’s really getting fun.”

Medenica said about 57 percent of the possible number combinations were purchased in advance of Friday’s drawing and that it was an “extremely pleasant surprise” there was no winner.

“That means the odds were [a winning ticket] would have gotten picked but it didn’t,” Medenica said. “This is really uncharted territory for all of us.”

What’s more, the jackpot is likely to grow even larger before Tuesday, as word of the record-breaking grand prize grows and prompts even people who don’t normally play the lottery to buy a ticket, Medenica said.

The previous record Mega Millions jackpot was $656 million, claimed in the drawing on Mar. 30, 2012. Winners in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland shared that jackpot.

Though no one won the grand prize outright on Friday, Mega Millions officials said there were 15 tickets sold with numbers that matched all five white balls but not the Mega Ball. Those “second-tier” winning tickets are worth at least $1 million.

The string of enormous Mega Millions jackpots in recent months has been the natural result of officials changing the rules of the game last October to make jackpots pay out less frequently, as The Washington Post reported:

The modifications had the intended effect. According to the official list of largest Mega Millions jackpots, three of the six top jackpot amounts have been awarded since the rules were changed last year.

A 2016 Powerball jackpot that was worth $1.58 billion is the current record-holder for largest jackpot in history. Three winning tickets split that Powerball grand prize that year.

Medenica said every so often, a massive jackpot like this will seize the cultural imagination and prompt a run on tickets.

“It was two-and-a-half years ago that Powerball had this kind of a run,” Medenica said.