If the holder chooses a one-time cash option, the ticket will yield a one-time payment of approximately $742.2 million. Otherwise, the roughly $1.28 billion prize will be spread over annual payments. “We are thrilled to witness one of the largest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Pat McDonald, chief executive officer of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a press release Saturday. “We’re excited to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon.” Friday night’s winning numbers were 13, 36, 45, 57, 67 and a Mega Ball of 14. The next drawing will take place on Tuesday at 11pm ET. Some other ticket holders also won some pretty big prizes on Friday. Twenty-six tickets won a secondary prize of at least $1 million for matching the first five numbers. Six of the 26 tickets won $2 million because buyers matched not only the first five numbers but also paid an extra $1 to activate the game’s “multiplier,” which increases non-jackpot prizes. One of the 26 tickets sold in California did not have the multiplier, but won more than $4.2 million, according to state lottery officials. This is because all awards in California must be based on sales and the number of winners rather than being a fixed amount. The 20 “Match 5” winners without the multiplier were sold in California. Florida (two); Georgia (two); Illinois? Kentucky? Louisiana? Michigan? Minnesota (two); North Carolina (two); New Hampshire (two); New York; Oklahoma? Pennsylvania? Texas (two); and Wisconsin. The six $2 million tickets were sold in Arizona. Florida (three). Iowa and Pennsylvania, according to Mega Millions. The jackpot had been up since mid-April when the jackpot was hit in consecutive draws on April 12 and April 15. Since then, no ticket in the twice-weekly drawings has matched all six numbers — which is tough. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. The largest Mega Millions jackpot of $1.537 billion was won by a single ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018. This is the second largest jackpot for any US lottery game and is the world’s largest lottery prize won by a single ticket, according to the Mega Millions. The largest jackpot from any US lottery game was $1.586 billion — a Powerball prize from Jan. 13, 2016, shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee. The Friday night Mega Millions website went down for several minutes after the drawing. The lottery’s jackpots start at $20 million and increase based on game sales and interest, according to its website. Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands, where drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 PM ET. Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and DC, but the buyer must be located in that state. CNN’s Aya Elamroussi and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
