BALTIMORE, MD—Big money is officially on the table. The Mega Millions jackpot for the Friday, July 15 drawing has reached $480 million, the 10th largest in the game’s history. The cash option is $276 million.
If nobody hits the jackpot on July 15, it will roll to an estimated annuity value of $530 million for the drawing on Tuesday, July 19, making it the eighth-largest in Mega Millions history, with an estimated cash option of $304.7 million.
Mega Millions jackpot winners can choose between annuity payments ‒ one immediate payment and annual payments that increase by 5 percent per year for 29 years ‒ or the cash option.
The last drawing on July 12 produced 31,686 Maryland winners of prizes ranging from $2 to $500. Nationally, there were 1,197,065 winners of prizes up to $1 million.
The Maryland Lottery has sold 14 Mega Millions winning tickets of $10,000 to $1 million during the current jackpot run, which began with the Tuesday April 19 drawing. The total includes a second-tier winning ticket worth $1 million that was sold in Rising Sun.
Since the last jackpot of $20 million was hit in Tennessee on April 15, Mega Millions has produced more than 14.1 million winning tickets across the country, with prizes ranging from $2 up to $1 million. There have been 24 second-tier winners of $1 million and 346 third-tier winners of $10,000. Mega Millions has nine different prize tiers, and tickets are sold in 47 states and jurisdictions
The largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was $1.537 billion on Oct. 23, 2018 on a ticket sold in South Carolina. The last Maryland jackpot win came on March 14, 2014, when Maryland and Florida players split a $414 million jackpot. Before taxes, the jackpot gave the Maryland and Florida ticket holders $115.5 million each through the cash option selected by the winners. After taxes, the Maryland winner received $76.4 million. That winning ticket was sold at Lady’s Liquors in La Plata.
