Mega Millions Numbers for 07/30/21: Did Anyone Win the $166 Million?

The winning Mega Milllions numbers for Friday were 19, 26, 31, 52, and 68, and the Mega Ball number was 10 while the Megaplier was 3X.

There was a top prize of $166 million and a cash option of $120.1 million, but did anyone take home the big prize?

Again, nobody matched all five numbers and the Mega Ball, which means the jackpot continues to grow. For Tuesday's drawing, it will now be worth $179 million with a cash option of $129.5 million.

There were also no winners of the $1 million prize as no one got all five numbers to take home that seven-figure sum, according to the Mega Millions website.

However, there were 17 winners of the $10,000 prize for those who matched four numbers and the Mega Ball. Five of them tripled their winnings by using the Megaplier.

There were also 347 players who won $500 by matching four numbers, 77 of whom increased their prize to $1,500 with the Megaplier.

A further 971 players won $200 by matching three numbers and the Mega Ball, with 190 players winning $600 by using the Megaplier. Over 566,000 tickets won prizes of at least $2.

There may have been no major prizes last night but there have been some big winners recently.

Earlier this month, a five-member group claimed a jackpot prize they had won in May of $516 million. Those winners claimed the prize as a cash, lump-sum payment and so got $348,600,000, with the total amount after federal and state taxes coming to $254,233,980.

"This is life-changing generational money," attorneys Kurt Panouses and Christopher Mahoney said in a joint statement to the Pennsylvania Lottery.

The winners lived in small communities in eastern Pennsylvania and wanted to keep their lives as normal as possible. "Maintaining anonymity is key to ensuring that normalcy," the statement added.

Meanwhile, in June, a single ticket sold in Illinois took the top prize of $55 million ($38 million cash). There have been four jackpot winners so far this year, compared with five for the whole of 2020.

How Does Mega Millions work?

Since it launched in 1996, Mega Millions remains one of the most popular multi-state lotteries in the country.

Tickets are available in 45 states and they can also be bought in the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There are five states which do not sell lottery tickets; Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.

To be in to win, players can buy a ticket from a licensed lottery retailer for $2 with the option of adding the Megaplier to your ticket for an additional $1.

Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million, while other prizes pay from $1 million to $2 million or more with a Megaplier.

Players choose five numbers ranging from 1 to 70 for the white balls and select one number from 1 to 25 for the gold numbers. Numbers are randomly selected via the Easy Pick or Quick Pick options.

A player who wins the top prize can either claim it as an annuity or as cash. An annuity is one-off payment which is followed by 29 annual payments, with each payment worth five percent more than the previous one. Those who take the cash option get a one-time, lump-sum payment equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool.

Drawings are held every Tuesday and Friday at WSB-TV in Atlanta where five white balls are drawn from a set numbered 1 through 70. There is one gold Mega Ball which is drawn from a set numbered 1 through 25.

There are nine different ways to win a prize and the lottery says that the chances of winning at least $2 are 1 in 24.