Lottery

A single ticket sold in California won Friday’s $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the lottery announced Saturday morning.

If someone wins the jackpot Friday, it will be the fifth-largest prize in the game’s history. Who wouldn’t want to get in line for a chance to win?

NBC6’s Johanna Torres tells us the odds you’ll take home the money.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The five states that do not participate in this lottery are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.

Larger payouts attract more media attention, increase ticket sales and bring in new players.

Depending on where you live, you could miss out on $125 million of your winnings due to state taxes.

There was no jackpot winner on Christmas Eve, raising the pot to $1.15 billion for the Friday drawing.

The jackpot has been growing for more than three months.

The Mega Millions jackpot has increased to an estimated $944 million after another drawing without a big winner Friday night.

An $862 million Mega Millions jackpot is up for grabs Friday night, giving a lucky player the chance to stuff tons of stockings this holiday season.

“We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” Jerry Hicks said.

Increased costs for necessities might have helped lead to consumers dialing back purchases of scratch-off lottery tickets, as state economists reported Florida Lottery sales decreased during the past fiscal year.

A great-grandmother from Pennsylvania who recently completed radiation treatments for breast cancer won $5 million on a scratch-off state lottery ticket.

A Publix shopper woke up millions of dollars richer on Sunday, after buying a winning Florida Lottery ticket from a store in Manatee County.

A ticket sold at a Pompano Beach gas station matched all six numbers in Wednesday night’s Florida Lotto drawing.

The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $865 million — making it one of the largest Powerball prizes ever ahead of Wednesday night’s drawing.

The stars have aligned in the lottery universe like never before, with two jackpots totaling nearly $2 billion.

Attorney Andrew Stoltmann has represented 12 lottery winners, many of whom lost all their winnings through bad investments, reckless spending and greedy relatives. “Unfortunately, the people who win the lottery think at that point, the journey is over. And what they don’t realize is that the journey has really just begun,” says the Chicago-based Stoltmann.

Lottery fever is alive and well in South Florida ahead of a Mega Millions drawing with a $735 million jackpot. NBC6’s Marissa Bagg reports