The average unclaimed winnings has averaged $40 million to 50 million in the last several years, according to the California Lottery.
Luck was on someone's side in Lancaster.
That's where a Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $568,680 was sold at a check cashing business. The ticket sold at Eastside Checks Cashed in the Antelope Valley community matched five numbers, just missing the Mega number.
The numbers drawn Tuesday were 3, 19, 20, 22, 66 and the Mega number was 9. The estimated jackpot was $129 million.
The jackpot for Friday's drawing to $150 million after no one match all numbers in Tuesday's drawing.
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Tickets with five numbers that miss the Mega number sold outside California are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million. California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners.
The drawing was the eighth since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number are 1 in 302,575,350, according to the California Lottery. The overall chance of winning
a prize is 1 in 24.
