Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot offers North Carolinians a chance to win a jackpot weighing in at more than half a billion dollars.

The Mega Millions jackpot for tonight, June 7, is estimated at a $530 million annuity, worth $345.2 million cash. It is the 7th largest jackpot in the history of the game.

“North Carolina is lucky right now,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. “We had a great winner of the Powerball jackpot on Saturday. Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone from our state won this jackpot tonight? We’d love to see two jackpot winners in the same week.”

The winner of Saturday’s $344.6 million Powerball jackpot was Charles W. Jackson Jr. of Cumberland County. He claimed his prize on Tuesday and chose to take home the cash option of $223 million. Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is an estimated $53 million as an annuity or $34.3 million cash.

Some Mega Millions numbers

• $1.53 billion. That’s the current Mega Millions jackpot record. It was won by one ticket on Oct. 23, 2018.
• 33,731. That’s how many tickets in North Carolina won a prize in Tuesday’s drawing.
• $8.5 million. That’s an estimate on how much Mega Millions sales in North Carolina have generated for education since the jackpot started rolling on March 15.

Winners

• 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, two people in North Carolina have won the Mega Millions jackpot, taking home prizes of $12 million and $57 million.
• There are nine ways to win playing each game. Winners of any draw game prize have 180 days to claim before the ticket expires.

Sales of tickets for games like Mega Millions help the lottery raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how money raised by the lottery have made a difference in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section on the lottery’s website.