Five out of six isn't bad when the Mega Millions jackpot is more than $1 billion.
There were no tickets matching all six numbers in Tuesday night's drawing, but two tickets sold in Southern California matched five numbers, only missing the Mega number.
One of those lucky tickets was sold at Bootleggers 2 liqouor store in the 100 block of East Avenue K in Lancaster. Another was sold at Royal Liquors in the 2500 block of Pasadena Avenue in Lincoln Heights.
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Both of those tickets are worth a cool $650,579, the California Lottery said.
There were seven tickets sold nationwide with five numbers. One ticket with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in Texas is worth $4 million because the player used the Megaplier option.
While tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis. That means payoffs can be both larger and smaller than those in other states.
Other tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, were sold in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin. They are each worth $1 million.
The numbers drawn Tuesday were 8, 24, 30, 45, 61 and the Mega number was 12. The estimated jackpot was $1.05 billion, matching the seventh-largest U.S. lottery jackpot. The drawing was the 30th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number are 1 in 302,575,350, according to the California Lottery. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.
The Mega Millions jackpot for the next drawing Friday at 7:59 p.m. is an estimated $1.25 billion.
