{"id":138065,"date":"2026-01-17T19:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T19:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138065\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T19:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T19:55:10","slug":"jackpot-fever-builds-as-mega-millions-climbs-to-250-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138065\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackpot fever builds as Mega Millions climbs to $250 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG-20140710-01000-e1405028807944.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768679710_237_IMG-20140710-01000-e1405028807944-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Lottery tickets\" class=\"wp-image-6575\"  \/><\/a>California lottery ticket. (File photo by Alexander Nguyen\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n<p>The Mega Millions jackpot is on the rise again after no ticket matched all six numbers in the latest drawing, pushing the estimated top prize for Tuesday night to $250 million.<\/p>\n<p>While no one hit the jackpot, two players came close. Tickets sold in North Carolina and Texas matched five numbers but missed the Mega Ball, earning $2 million each, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.megamillions.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mega Millions Consortium <\/a>announced.<\/p>\n<p>The winning numbers drawn Friday were 2, 22, 33, 42, and 67, with the Mega Ball 1. The jackpot going into the drawing was estimated at $230 million.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s drawing marked the 13th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner, continuing the steady buildup toward a major payout.<\/p>\n<p>The odds of matching all five numbers plus the Mega Ball remain long at 1 in 290,472,336, according to the consortium. Players have a 1 in 23 chance of winning any prize.<\/p>\n<p>Mega Millions is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n<p>(City News contributed to this report)<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California lottery ticket. (File photo by Alexander Nguyen\/Times of San Diego) The Mega Millions jackpot is on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[70045,228,61656,1047,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-138065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-250-million","tag-jackpot","tag-january-2026","tag-mega-millions","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}