TAMPA, Fla. — While the two major nationwide lottery jackpots remain elusive, Florida continues to be a lucky state for newly-minted millionaires.
Nobody won Tuesday night's estimated $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, but eight tickets sold matched the five white ball numbers, winning $1 million. This includes a ticket sold in Florida.
The Mega Millions jackpot grows to an estimated $720 million ahead of Friday's drawing.
Only one person came away with more than $1 million in Tuesday night's drawing — a ticketholder in Maryland chose the Megaplier and matched the five white ball numbers, coming away with $4 million.
In recent drawings over the last few weeks, multiple people in Florida have come away with million-dollar winning tickets. In Monday's Powerball drawing, a $1 million ticket was sold at an M2 Food Mart on South MacDill Avenue in Tampa.
Last week, another million-dollar ticket was sold in Florida during a Powerball drawing.
The estimated Powerball jackpot ahead of Wednesday's drawing is $1 billion, the third-largest in the game's history. Neither Powerball nor Mega Millions have had jackpot winners since April, and this week's Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are worth more than $1.7 billion combined.
Mega Millions hasn't seen a grand prize winner since April 18, when a 71-year-old man from New York won the state's largest Mega Millions jackpot ever. Johnnie Taylor of Howard Beach in Queens, New York, won $476 million but opted for the cash option — a lump sum of more than $157 million after taxes.
Mega Millions winning numbers for July 18, 2023:
The winning numbers were 19-22-31-37-54, Mega Ball 18 and Megaplier 4.
What are the largest lottery jackpots ever won?
- $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 (one ticket, from Maine)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan
- $1 billion, Powerball (estimated) - July 19, 2023
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
- $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
- $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
The game's giant prizes come with minuscule chances of actually winning — winners overcome odds of roughly 1 in 302.6 million.
TEGNA Digital contributed to this report.