After drawing the lucky number, at least one Mega Millions player has a lot of money to celebrate the New Year. The Mega Millions website says that a ticket worth about $1.22 billion was bought in California for the drawing on Friday night, three months after the jackpot had not been won.
The lucky ticket matched the gold Mega Ball 6 with the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, and 55. It wasn’t clear right away who the winner or winners were.
The full Mega Millions jackpot amount would only be given to a winner who decides to get payments over 29 years. Almost all grand prize winners choose to get their money in cash. The projected cash prize for Friday night’s drawing is $549.7 million.
Even though the chances were very low—1 in 302.6 million—people kept buying tickets as the grand prize got bigger. Mega Millions players hadn’t won the big prize since September 10 until Friday.
In August 2023, the $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot ticket with the most money won was sold in Florida. Two prizes for the Powerball drawing in its home country have been bigger.
Powerball and Mega Millions are sold in 45 states, as well as in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game Powerball is also sold in Puerto Rico.
In April, Mega Millions tickets will cost $5 instead of $2. The increase is one of many changes that officials say will make the odds of winning the jackpot better, make big wins happen more often, and make payouts even bigger.
