No Mega Millions winner, jackpot grows to $910M

$1 billion? The Mega Millions jackpot might reach it.

The Mega Millions top prize is an estimated $910 million after there was no Tuesday winner of the lottery’s latest jackpot.

The winning numbers were: 3, 5, 6, 44, 61 and gold Mega Ball 25.

The $820 million jackpot was the eighth-largest U.S. lottery prize and follows a $1.08 billion prize won by a player last week in Los Angeles. California lottery officials haven’t announced a winner of that prize, which was the sixth-largest in U.S. history.

Jackpots in the two lottery games grow so large because the steep odds make winning so unlikely, allowing the grand prize to roll over again and again. The last time someone beat Mega Millions’ odds of 1 in 302.5 million and won a jackpot was April 18 — that’s 28 drawings without a big winner.

The game pays out many more smaller prizes, which start at $2. The overall odds of winning any prize is 1 in 24.

The $820 million prize for Tuesday night’s drawing was for a sole winner who chooses payment through an annuity, with one immediate payment and then 29 annual allotments. Jackpot winners nearly always take the cash option, which for Tuesday night’s drawing would have been an estimated $418.3 million.

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

Tickets cost $2 and are not sold in Nevada. The closest location is at The Lotto Store in Primm, just across the Nevada state line. Arizona outlets also sell lottery tickets.

— The Review-Journal contributed to this report.