An Election Day Jackpot, Too: Mega Millions Stands at $482 Million for Tuesday Night's 11 P.M. Drawing
When Lee County's polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the night's other big number is still four hours out: Mega Millions draws an estimated $482 million jackpot at 11 p.m. ET — and the game's last winner was a Florida player who took $800 million in July.
Election Day in Florida ends with a drawing. Mega Millions holds its Tuesday drawing at 11 p.m. ET with an estimated jackpot of $482 million and a cash option of $203.6 million, according to megamillions.com — a prize that has been building since Friday, when no ticket matched the Oct. 30 numbers (5, 10, 38, 49, 68, Mega Ball 17) to win the then-$463 million jackpot, and no ticket matched all five white balls either. Mega Millions draws every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET.
Florida has a particular relationship with this jackpot run: the last time anyone won Mega Millions was July 28, when a Florida player won an $800 million prize — a ticket sold in Bradenton, on the Gulf coast an hour and a half north of Fort Myers — with a cash value of $344.2 million. Nobody has matched all six numbers since, and the prize has crept back toward half a billion dollars in the three months since.
Tuesday's drawing lands in the middle of a remarkable lottery week for the state whose capital hosts the Powerball studio: Powerball's $793 million jackpot went unclaimed in Tallahassee on Monday night and rolls to Wednesday, and Mega Millions takes its turn in between, at 11 p.m. on the night the votes are counted. Two jackpots, three drawings, one week — and the biggest of them all may still be growing when Wednesday's Powerball numbers are drawn.
