{"id":108290,"date":"2024-12-24T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mega-millions-jackpot-hits-1-billion-ahead-of-christmas-eve-drawing\/"},"modified":"2024-12-24T18:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:03:39","slug":"mega-millions-jackpot-hits-1-billion-ahead-of-christmas-eve-drawing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mega-millions-jackpot-hits-1-billion-ahead-of-christmas-eve-drawing\/","title":{"rendered":"Mega Millions jackpot hits $1 billion ahead of Christmas Eve drawing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-12-24\/G_megamillions_122424.jpg\" alt><figcaption>Lokman Vural Elibol\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(NEW YORK) &#8212; The Mega Millions\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/mega-millions-jackpot-surges-944-million\/story?id=116997114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jackpot<\/a>\u00a0has soared to an estimated $1 billion ahead of its Christmas Eve drawing.<\/p>\n<p>The estimated jackpot would make it the seventh-largest in the game&#8217;s history and its seventh billion-dollar prize.<\/p>\n<p>It would also be the largest ever won in December, if a ticket matches all six numbers drawn.<\/p>\n<p>The cash value of the jackpot is estimated to be $448.8 million.<\/p>\n<p>The last time the jackpot was won was at $810 million in Texas on Sept. 10. No one has won the grand prize in the last 29 drawings, as the jackpot has ballooned.<\/p>\n<p>The Mega Millions jackpot has only been won on Christmas Eve once before, according to the game. A $68 million jackpot was won in New York on Dec. 24, 2002, though it was never claimed.<\/p>\n<p>The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions.<\/p>\n<p>Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play. Tuesday&#8217;s drawing is at 11 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lokman Vural Elibol\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (NEW YORK) &#8212; The Mega Millions\u00a0jackpot\u00a0has soared to an estimated $1 billion ahead of its Christmas Eve drawing. The estimated jackpot would make it the seventh-largest in the game&#8217;s history and its seventh billion-dollar prize. It would also be the largest ever won<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mega-millions-jackpot-hits-1-billion-ahead-of-christmas-eve-drawing\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}