$893M Mega Millions Jackpot Drawing Is Tuesday: What To Know In MD

MARYLAND — Lottery players in Maryland have another shot Tuesday at one of the largest Mega Millions jackpots — $893 million — in the history of the game.

The jackpot climbed again for Tuesday’s drawing after no one matched the five white balls — 13, 25, 50, 51 and 66 — and the mega ball, which was 6, in Friday night’s drawing. Mega Millions numbers are drawn twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.

To be eligible for the jackpot, Maryland players must buy their tickets by 10:45 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday under state lottery law.

Jackpots may be paid out over a 30-year annuity, but most people take a lump sum payment, which would be $421.4 million for Tuesday’s drawing. It’s important to remember that winnings are subject to federal taxes and, often, state taxes, as well.

Tickets cost $2. For another $1, players can buy the Megaplier option, which increases their non-jackpot prizes by two, three, four or five times. The Megaplier in Friday’s drawing was 5X. Mega Millions is played in 45 states; Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There are more than 3,000 retailers in Maryland that sell Mega Millions and other lottery tickets, including:

• 7-Eleven
• CVS
• Wawa
• Giant
• Shoppers
• Royal Farms
• Harris Teeter
• Wegmans
• Safeway
• BP
• Shell
• Exxon
• Food Lion
• Walmart

Many restaurants, bars and other businesses also sell lottery tickets. You can search the Maryland Lottery site for retail sales sites.

Although there were no jackpot winners Friday, a ticket sold in New York matched the five white balls to win a second-tier $1 million prize. Another 39 tickets matched four white balls and the Mega ball to win third-tier prizes, which were worth $50,000 each for the nine players who played the Megaplier option. The other third-tier winners took home $10,000 each.

The top prize has been growing since Dec. 8, when the same Los Angeles gas station sold two jackpot-winning tickets. The two winners split the $394 million prize.

• Related: Gas Station Sells 2 Mega Millions Jackpot-Winning Tickets

In the 28 consecutive drawings since the last jackpot win, almost 21.5 million non-jackpot winning tickets have been sold, including 33 second-tier prizes worth $1 or more won in 19 states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Tuesday’s jackpot is the sixth-largest in the 22-year history of the Mega Millions game and the 10th-largest U.S. lottery prize. Five of those six jackpots exceeded $1 billion.

Lottery players face long odds — 1 in 302.6 million — in winning the jackpot, but the odds of winning other prizes

Since the game was rolled out in 2002, Maryland's largest Mega Millions winner snagged the winning $414 million jackpot sold on March 18, 2014; the $218.6 million jackpot was sold in Maryland on March 30, 2012.