“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15 billion jackpot,” Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a news release before the jackpot rose again to $1.22 billion.

Friday night's Mega Millions drawing could reveal a winning ticket for the lottery game's fifth largest jackpot: $1.22 billion.

Friday’s Mega Millions drawing is worth an estimated $1.22 billion, evoking headlines and likely luring more people to convenience stores with dreams of private spacewalks above the Earth.