The Shadow
RICHMOND — As 2018 comes to a close, the last Mega Millions jackpot of the year on Dec. 28 is an estimated $348 million ($210.2 million cash).
It’s the largest prize ever offered on the last draw day of any year since the game began in 2002.
The jackpot keeps rolling after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Christmas night — the white balls 2, 8, 42, 43 and 50, plus the gold Mega Ball 6.
The year 2018 produced a major milestone for Mega Millions, as the game crossed the billion dollar threshold for the first time with a record $1.537 billion jackpot on Oct. 23.
Just one winning ticket was sold for that drawing; the ticket-holder in South Carolina has not yet come forward.
Four other jackpots have been won in 2018 – $451 million on Jan. 5 (Florida), $533 million on March 30 (New Jersey), $142 million on May 4 (Ohio) and $543 million on July 24 (California).
The Christmas drawing – only the fifth time in Mega Millions history the game was drawn on Dec. 25 — produced 1,137,550 winning tickets at all prize levels.
Two tickets matched the five white balls to win the game’s second prize.
One, sold in Connecticut, included the optional Megaplier and is worth $3 million after the 3X Megaplier was drawn Tuesday night. The other, worth $1 million, was sold in Missouri.
Twenty-two tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball for the $10,000 third prize.
Two of those are actually worth $30,000 because they also included the optional Megaplier.
Since the last jackpot was won on Oct. 23, there have been more than 11.3 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 21 worth $1 million or more.
Mega Millions is offered in 44 states, including Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Mega Millions is drawn at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday and Friday evenings, including holidays.
Mega Millions requires players to match 5 of 70 white balls, and the gold-colored MegaBal ” from a second field, of 25 numbers ( 5/70/1/25).
