Friday’s jackpot was the lottery’s second-largest prize in its 20-year history and had a cash value option of $742.2 million.
The next drawing is Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET, according to the lottery website.
The largest prize in any US lottery game was a $1.586 billion Powerball prize on January 13, 2016, shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Timothy Schultz, who won a $28 million Powerball jackpot in 1999 and now hosts a lottery podcast, told CNN that winning can “turn your life around.”
He said after he checked his numbers in the paper and realized he won, some of the first calls he made were to lawyers and financial advisers.
“It can change pretty much everything, relationships, your ability to live a life,” he said. “I think it can buy time, which can be invaluable. And, you know, it’s one of the most surreal life-changing things that can happen to somebody.”
He said working with a financial advisor will benefit people who don’t have experience with millions because an advisor will help winners understand what they can realistically do with the winnings.
Schultz said he didn’t consider himself materialistic before winning, so his most extravagant purchases were some cars and real estate.
“I found that for me and a lot of people I’ve met and interviewed that winning the lottery increases, or at least can increase, your personality. It doesn’t necessarily change who you are.” he said
He said that while he rarely plays the lottery these days, he did buy a ticket for Friday night’s drawing.
Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million for the annual prize and grow based on game sales and 30-year US Treasury interest rates. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
There are seven other less valuable prizes that depend on how many and what kind of balls a ticket matches. The odds of winning a second million dollar prize, if a ticket matches all five white balls but not the Mega Millions, are 1 in 12,607,306.
Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands, with drawings on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and DC, but the buyer must be in that state.
CNN’s Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.