newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Mega Millions jackpot is on the rise again. There have been nine consecutive drawings since the huge jackpot on March 30 without a winner.

No one won the jackpot in the drawing of Tuesday May 1, so the Mega Millions website reports that the prize for Friday, May 4 will be up to $118 million, with a cash option value of $86 million.

According to delawareonline.com, the winning numbers in the Mega Millions drawing on May 1 were 24, 27, 31, 45, and 52, and the Mega Ball was 38. Six tickets matched the first five numbers without having the Mega Ball to win $250,000, none of them coming from New Jersey.

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Very often players would be happy to win one of the lesser prizes in a lottery drawing. Mega Millions is little more than a month removed from its massive $656 million jackpot, but Powerball had a tough time finding any big winners at all in its drawing on Wednesday. Philly.com reported that there was no jackpot winner, and nobody had the first five numbers.

In New Jersey, there was one $40,000 winner as its top prize payout, according to the Powerball website, and no one else from the state won more than $200 in the drawing. Across the nation, less than $2.6 million was won overall. The average for April when there is no jackpot winner is $11 million.

Over in Idaho, players don’t appear all that concerned about winning. Many of them just don’t claim their money. "Over the last two years we've seen about $6 million go unclaimed," said Idaho Lottery spokesman David Workman, according to Lottery Post.

In 2010 about $3.7 million in prizes from scratch-off games and the regular drawings were unclaimed. The total dropped for 2011, but was still nearly $2.3 million.