Mega Millions Winning Numbers for $540 Million Jackpot: Friday, July 8

UPDATED Friday at 11 p.m.

The numbers drawn for the $540 million Mega Millions Jackpot are: 20, 19, 55, 73 and 8. The Megaball is 5.

Friday's Mega Millions Jackpot, originally estimated at $508 million, rose to $540 million thanks to brisk sales across all 44 participating Mega Millions states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Tuesday’s $454 million jackpot produced over 820,000 winning tickets in New York State, including 14 winners of $5,000 and 12 winners of $2,500. Lottery officials expect even more New York winners in Friday's drawing.

If no one matches all five numbers plus the Mega Ball in Friday’s drawing, the jackpot will continue to get bigger. Tickets for the Mega Millions drawing can be purchased Friday until 10:45 p.m. EST.

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Original story:

Here we go again.

With no winner in Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing, the jackpot for the Friday, July 8 drawing is now estimated at $508 million, the third-largest Mega Million jackpot in the country's history.

The one-time cash payout option for Friday's game, if you win, is estimated at $357.7 million.

• Patch will update this story with winning numbers as soon as they're pulled.

We say "here we go again," because the huge numbers are reminiscent of the buildup — the absolute mayhem and madness — that occurred in January, when the Powerball numbers exceeded the $1 billion mark.

Remember that? The jackpot eventually grew to $1.586 billion (with a "b," people) before the winning numbers were drawn on Jan. 13 by three people in California, Florida and Tennessee.

No one got the jackpot Tuesday, but the multi-state lottery prize has now grown to the point where it ranks as the seventh-largest in U.S. history, lottery officials said on their website. That billion-dollar prize at the start of the year still ranks as the undisputed heavyweight among jackpots, but the Mega Millions is emerging as a worthy contender.

For the record:

• The winning numbers for July 5 were 29-46-53-64-73 and a mega ball of 10.

Only two other Mega Millions jackpots in history are higher than Friday night’s estimated prize, lottery officials say.

The most won on a single ticket was $326 million on November 4, 2014, according to Mega Millions.

A March 2012 Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million held the record for the largest lotto jackpot in U.S. history until three winners split the almost $1.6 billion prize in the Jan. 13, 2016, drawing. Mega Millions has awarded 10 jackpots of more than $300 million.

The Mega Millions drawing for this prize will take place Friday at 11 p.m.

The Powerball jackpot for the Wednesday, July 6 drawing is an estimated $257 million. The cash option on the prize is an estimated $179.7 million.

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Find locations on where to play and more information about the game on the New York Lottery website.

The odds of picking the correct numbers on five white balls and one yellow ball are one in 259 million.

No matter how many people play Mega Millions, the chances of winning never change. The chances of winning are based on the amount of number combinations, not the number of players buying tickets, say lottery officials. The Mega Millions game is played by selecting five numbers out of 75 choices (the numbers from 1 to 75), and by selecting one extra number from 1 to 15 (that's the Mega Ball).

CNN explains the tax implications of winning the big prize:

Lottery winnings are taxed like income, and the IRS taxes the top income bracket 39.6%. The government will withhold 25% of that before the money ever gets to the winner. The rest has to be paid at tax time. Then there are local taxes. Of the 44 U.S. states that participate in Powerball, all but a handful will take an additional cut of the money, according to lottery statistics site USA Mega.

Tony Cantu contributed to this post