The 10th-largest jackpot in the history of the multi-state Mega Millions lottery will be at stake in Friday evening’s drawing, $743 million, after 35 consecutive drawings since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The jackpot is the nation’s largest lottery prize since a $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot was won Dec. 24.
The odds of matching all six numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 290,472,336, according to the Mega Millions Consortium. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 23.
The Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands. It began in 1996 as The Big Game and was given the new name Mega Millions in 2002.
There have been at least 10 larger jackpots for the Powerball game.