Mega Millions: 2 area tickets just miss huge jackpot

For the second time in two months, a lottery jackpot has topped $200 million - in cash.

Last night, no one hit all the numbers drawn in Mega Millions - 1, 4, 6, 11 and 14, with a Mega Ball of 30 - so the advertised annuity jumped from $241 million to $290 million, or from $170 million to $205 million for the cash.

A whopping 68 tickets missed only the Mega Ball, including two in the Philadelphia area.

One was sold at the 7-Eleven at 320 E. Street Rd. in Feasterville, Bucks County.

The other might have landed anywhere in the country, since it was purchased at CNBC News in Terminal at Philadelphia International Airport.

Both are worth $250,000, since neither had the Megaplier multiplier option, which could have boosted the prize to $1 million.

New Jersey had a handful of $250,0000 winners, too, all of them in North Jersey: three in Essex County and one each in Passaic and Hudson Counties.

If a single ticket wins the lump-sum amount - and isn't that every lottery player's dream? - the haul would rank second all-time to only Powerball's $210 million, collected earlier this month by 81-year-old Louisa White of Rhode Island. She won the Feb. 11 drawing.

The biggest cash jackpot ever was $240 million for Mega Millions' Jan. 4, 2011 drawing. That was split by two tickets, in Idaho and Washington State.

Mega Millions' current cash jackpot ranks No. 5 all-time. (For list of Top 20, go to http://bit.ly/GI1iaW.)

California had the lion's share of second-place winners - 21 - which proved unlucky for them under the state's pari-mutuel system. By divvying up a pool of money so many ways, California, which does not offer the Megaplier, will pay each winner just $56,382.

Elsewhere, the prizes are $250,000, or $1 million with the Megaplier. Michigan had nine second-tier winners, New York eight, Texas four, Massachusetts and Kentucky three each, and Indiana and Ohio two apiece. With one winner each were Maryland, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin, Idaho and Illinois.

The Jersey winners were purchased at Seabra Supermarket, Pacific Street, in Newark; University News Stop, Irvington Avenue, in South Orange; Grove Deli, Grove Street, in Irvington; Grove News Corner, Newark Avenue, in Jersey City; and Quick Chek, Union Boulevard, Totowa.

For more, go to www.philly.com/philly/news/lottery, www.palottery.com or www.njlottery.net.