With over $1.3 billion up for grabs in this weekend’s Mega Millions and Powerball drawings, the North Carolina Education Lottery is reminding players to double check their tickets.
“If a player doesn’t hit the jackpot, there’s still a good chance they won a different prize,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. “The last thing we want is for someone to throw away a ticket and have a prize go unclaimed.”
Both games offer players nine ways to win. In Wednesday’s drawing, 48,014 Powerball tickets sold in North Carolina won a prize. One of those was a $50,000 prize. In Tuesday’s drawing, 93,726 Mega Millions tickets sold in the state won a prize. Three of those were $10,000 prizes.
Prizes can range from $2 to $5 million depending on the game and type of ticket a player buys.
Players have 180 days to claim a draw game prize. If it’s a prize under $600 the player can claim it at any store that sells lottery tickets. If the prize is between $600 and $99,999 the player can claim it at any of the six lottery claim centers in the state. If the prize is over $100,000, a player must come to lottery headquarters in Raleigh.
The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday is $970 million annuity worth $548.6 million cash. This is the largest Mega Millions jackpot on record, and the second largest jackpot in U.S. history. The Powerball jackpot for Saturday is $430 million or $248 million cash.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
So far, four North Carolinians have won the Powerball jackpot, with wins ranging from $74.5 to $188 million, and two people have won the Mega Millions jackpot, taking home prizes of $12 million and $57 million.