Mega Millions Jackpot Reaches $203 Million

UNITED STATES – (PRESS RELEASE) -- The jackpot is growing even larger, and Mega Millions players from coast to coast are the winners! A total of 1,243,856 tickets won prizes in the Tuesday, February 21 drawing. Since no ticket matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, the excitement continues to grow for the Friday, February 24, 2006 drawing, which will have an estimated jackpot of $203 million.

Tuesday's winning numbers were: 14-23-27-36-45 and the Mega Ball number was 36.

You can't come closer to winning the jackpot than the 19 tickets that matched the first five numbers and only missed the Mega Ball number. Those tickets were purchased in California (6), Illinois (2), Michigan (3), New York (4), Ohio (2), Texas (1) and Virginia (1).

This jackpot has been growing since January 6, when Mega Millions had its most recent jackpot winner. The jackpot has now rolled 13 times without a winner. The odds of winning the jackpot are approximately one in 176 million. The odds of winning any of the Mega Millions prizes are approximately 1 in 40.

Mega Millions is played in 12 states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 PM Eastern Time, 10:00 PM Central Time and 8:00 PM Pacific Time.