Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $445M ahead of Tuesday’s drawing

What are the odds you win the lottery?

What are the odds you win the lottery? You're more likely to be struck by lightning.

The Mega Millions jackpot now stands at an estimated $445 million ahead of Tuesday’s drawing.

The jackpot’s cash option totals $226 million.

Tuesday’s drawing will be held at 11 p.m. ET.

If the jackpot is won, lottery officials said it would be the 12th largest jackpot in the game’s 20-year history.

The last drawing was held on October 7 and there were 817,320 winning tickets at all prize levels, but no jackpot. Two tickets sold in California and Texas matched all the white balls, which was the second-tier prize.

When is the Mega Millions drawing?

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET. Five white balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 70, and one gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 25. Players win if the numbers on one row of a ticket match the numbers of the balls drawn on that date.

How to play Mega Millions

Mega Millions tickets cost $2 per play. Players win the jackpot by matching all six numbers in a drawing. If no one wins the jackpot, the money is added to the jackpot for the next drawing.

For those lucky enough to become a Mega Millions jackpot winner, they get the choice of a cash option or an annual payout. The annuity option means getting an initial payment followed by 29 annual payments, and each payment is 5% larger than the previous one. For those that select the cash option, they receive a one-time, lump-sum payment that is equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool after taxes.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot prize is roughly 1 in 302,575,350, lottery officials said. But a player’s overall chance of winning any prize is 1 in 24.

FOX 5 New York contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.