Emilie Richardson/ABC News(NEW YORK) — If you’re checking your numbers Saturday morning for the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, you’re not a grand-prize winner. But neither was anyone else.
The next Mega Millions jackpot will be an estimated $1.6 billion — the highest total in U.S. lottery history. The cash payout is $904 million.
“We’re in unchartered territory,” Gordon Medenica, Mega Millions lead director and the director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming, told Good Morning America on Saturday.
The drawing will be Tuesday at 11 p.m.
And the record jackpot can increase between now and then.
“Hold on to your hats,” Medenica said. “It could go up even further.”
When asked if the grand prize could hit a shocking $2 billion, Medenica said, “Anything’s possible.”
“I don’t want to jinx it,” he added.
The numbers drawn Friday night for the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history were 15-23-53-65-70 and a Mega Ball of 7. A single winner taking the cash lump sum would have received about $565.6 million.
There were a number of smaller winners in Friday’s drawing, including 15 people who won at least $1 million for matching each white ball. New York had the highest number of second-prize winners — with four. One ticket in Texas was worth $2 million for matching all five white balls and doubling the total with the Megaplier.
The Mega Millions jackpot has skyrocketed since the July 24 drawing when a group of 11 co-workers in Santa Clara County, California, shared a $543 million jackpot, the game’s fourth-largest.
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