After no winners were chosen in its Christmas Eve drawing, the Mega Millions lottery prize reached a record-high for the month of December.
The Mega Millions jackpot is currently at its biggest sum ever offered in December, at about $1.15 billion ($516.1 million in cash). On Friday, there will be another drawing.
Only seven times in history has the jackpot risen above $1 billion, and that is this week. According to a release from the Mega Millions, whoever is picked this week would take home the fifth-largest payout in the history of the lottery.
Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement, "We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday's drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15 billion jackpot."
"I can't think of a better way to celebrate the holidays than helping people realize their dreams with a prize like this and prizes that will be won at all levels of the game," he continued. "This is true whether people celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, the Winter Solstice, or any other way they choose to celebrate the season."
But there were some victors on Christmas Eve. Across all non-jackpot reward levels, 4,292,338 winning tickets were reported by the organization. The second-tier prize went to four tickets that were sold in Wyoming, Missouri, California, and Pennsylvania.
According to the company, there is a 1 in 24 chance of winning any Mega Millions reward overall, and a 1 in 302,575,350 chance of winning the jackpot.
This week also saw the solution to a lottery riddle. According to a statement from the state lottery, New Jersey's first jackpot winner of the year struck it lucky with a $1.128 billion reward with a ticket bought in March, but they didn't collect the money until this week.