Plenty of CA Lottery Players Still Feeling Lucky for Friday the 13th Mega Millions Draw

Any superstitious feelings about today’s date may not necessarily be deterring Mega Millions players ahead of Friday night’s big draw.

A Mega Millions jackpot has been won on a Friday the 13^th seven times in the game’s history! While that honor has never gone to a California Lottery player, that doesn’t seem to be stopping people across the Golden State from getting in on the action.

California Lottery sales for this jackpot run, which began with another Friday the 13^th drawing in September, currently total approximately $121 million. With around 0.80 cents for every ticket sold here supporting public education, the California Lottery estimates it’s raised about 48 million so far for schools just from Mega Millions sales these past three months.

“When jackpots get high, public schools win,” said Carolyn Becker, California Lottery spokesperson. “While we love to hand out big, multimillion-dollar prizes to our players, it’s always fun to see the jackpots keep rolling toward the billion-dollar mark. More people inevitably play, and we can raise even more money for education, which is our whole mission.”

There have been 26 Mega Millions drawings with no grand prize winners since Friday, Sept. 13, and tonight’s jackpot jumped Friday morning and is now advertised at $695 million – the 8^th largest in Mega Millions history. The drawing happens at 8 p.m. PT.