There were no winners of the big Mega Millions jackpot Tuesday night, but at least two tickets sold in New Jersey won $1 million each -- for the second time in less than a week.
Officials say those two second-tier prizewinning tickets were sold at the Lucky Spot Convenience Store in Somerset County's Somerville and a 7-Eleven on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City. They matched five of the five white balls drawn Tuesday night.
No winning tickets matched the numbers drawn for the jackpot, which has since climbed to a staggering $970 million. The next drawing is on Friday at 11 p.m.
In addition to the $1 million winning tickets, eight tickets for the third-tier prize worth $10,000 were sold in Bergen, Ocean, Monmouth, Union, Ocean, Warren and Gloucester counties. The Ocean County ticket was bought with the Megaplier option, multiplying that person's prize to $20,000.
There's no need to wait until Friday night's Mega drawing to take your chances. Powerball, the other lottery game offered in most of the U.S., has a $730 million jackpot for Wednesday night's drawing.
It’s the first time both lottery jackpots have topped $700 million. The biggest prize was a $1.58 billion Powerball jackpot won by three people in 2016.
No one has won the Mega Millions jackpot since Sept. 15, allowing the prize to grow larger and larger over four months. The last Powerball jackpot winner was a day later, on Sept. 16.
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Such big jackpots are rare, but both games rely on incredibly long odds to generate attention and increase sales. For Mega Millions, the odds of matching all six numbers is one in 302.5 million, and for Powerball it’s one in 292.2 million.
