Mega Millions: Here are the winning numbers for the $640M jackpot
(NEXSTAR) -- Yet another record-setting lottery prize is up for grabs. This time, it's a $640 million Mega Millions jackpot that has been growing for three months. If your ticket matches the numbers below that were drawn Tuesday night, you could be the winner of the seventh-largest Mega Millions jackpot on record.
The Mega Millions numbers drawn on July 18 were: 19, 22, 31, 37, and 54, and Mega Ball 18. The Megaplier was 4X.
This jackpot has been brewing since April when a $20 million prize was won by a ticket sold in Syracuse, New York, just four days after a $483 million Mega Millions jackpot was hit by a ticket sold in Queens.
Ahead of Tuesday's drawing, Mega Millions officials estimated the jackpot's size at $640 million with a cash value of $328 million. That puts it among the largest in the game's history:
- $1.537 billion: Oct. 23, 2018 (South Carolina)
- $1.348 billion: Jan. 13, 2023 (Maine)
- $1.337 billion: July 29, 2022 (Illinois)
- $1.050 billion: Jan. 22, 2021 (Michigan)
- $656 million: Mar. 30, 2012 (Illinois, Kansas, and Maryland)
- $648 million: Dec. 17, 2013 (California and Georgia)
- $640 million: (estimated ahead of Tuesday's drawing)
- $543 million: July 24, 2018 (California)
- $536 million: July 8, 2016 (Indiana)
- $533 million: Mar. 30, 2018 (New Jersey)
Should you be the lucky winner, you'll be able to either take the cash lump sum payment or the annuity option, which offers one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that grow by 5% each time.
You may want to think twice before collecting the cash option though. Winners of giant jackpots nearly always take the cash, and financial advisers say that might be a mistake.
Your odds of winning any prize (there are nine total ways to win) while playing Mega Millions is 1 in 24, but your odds at landing the jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.
Winner or not, the next Mega Millions drawing will be at 11 p.m. ET on Friday. Tickets start at $2 each, and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Meanwhile, a record-setting Powerball jackpot will be up for grabs Wednesday night. That jackpot, which has also been building since April, is estimated to break $1 billion, making it one of the largest in U.S. history — and potentially the fourth lottery prize to cross the monumental mark within the last year.