DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery game has grown to $1 billion ahead of Friday night’s drawing after more than four months without a winner.
You can't buy a ticket in Alabama, but you can in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.
That record drought is thanks to bad luck, poor odds and reduced play partially blamed on the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s only the third time a lottery jackpot has grown so large, but much has changed since the last time such a big prize was up for grabs in 2018.
And even as the huge Mega Millions prize and a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot won Wednesday by a single ticket sold in Maryland have juiced sales for the games, Maryland lottery director Gordon Medenica noted: “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
