Mega Millions Hits $319, One Winning Ticket Sold

Your chances of winning are slim to none, but some would say better slim than none.

UPDATE: One ticket matched all six numbers in Friday's drawing. It was purchased at a convenience store in upstate New York. The lottery hit $319 million due to last minute buying. Tuesday's drawing is back down to the $12 million minimum.

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Have you bought your Mega Millions lottery ticket yet? It's in the big money for Friday night's drawing.

Since no one hit all six Mega numbers Tuesday night, Friday's jackpot has reached a whopping $319 million.

Lottery officials had originally estimated Friday's drawing would be $304 million. It readjusted that number to $312 million, but in the end it surpassed it by a few million thanks to office pools and the like. 

In the Mega Millions, you are not only competing against your neighbors across the state, this lottery also covers Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Friday's jackpot is the sixth largest of all time. Mega Millions has been rolling over ever since Feb. 4 when it started at the $12 million minimum.
 
The record is $390 million. That pot was shared by a New Jersey couple and a truck driver in Georgia in 2007.

Tickets will be sold until 7:45 p.m. The drawing will be held at 8 p.m.

The actual odds, according to the lottery, are 1 in 175,711,436. Or as Jim Carrey would say in "Dumb and Dumber," "So you're sayin' there's a chance."

According to the lottery's website, the last time a jackpot was won in California was in August 2010 when John Davis in Morro Bay won $135 million.

Last year was a good year for Californians -- in July 2010, a $64 million jackpot was won by Zahra Vasseghi of Agoura Hills and Thu Thao Truong of El Monte, a $266 million jackpot was won in May 2010 by Gilbert and Jackie Cisneros in Pico Rivera and a $134 million jackpot was won by John Dalkos in Long Beach. 

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