Strong sales nationwide have increased the Mega Millions jackpot to $425 million.
Lottery officials in Virginia, the lead state for the Mega Millions game, say sales are expected to reach $104 million for Friday night's drawing since the last drawing Tuesday. That's about five times the sales when the jackpot is $15 million, the starting point after a jackpot is won.
No one has won the Mega Millions jackpot in over two months, causing it to grow. Right now, the jackpot is the second-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, and the fifth-largest in multi-state lottery history.
A winner choosing the cash option would take home $228 million.
But even at $425 million, it's still well below a record Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million set back on March 30, 2012.
The game revised its drawings in October to increase the number of prize winners among those who purchase the $1 tickets.
Under the new system, the number of white balls increased from 56 to 75, and the number of gold balls will decrease from 46 to 15. The changes mean the new overall odds of winning the big jackpot are one in 259 million.
The idea is that with fewer winners, the jackpot will rollover more often, increasing the occurrence of large jackpots.
Mega Millions is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
