Mega Millions numbers: 1 winning ticket to the jackpot of 1.35 billion
New York (WABC) – One Maine ticket holder will celebrate a very happy New Year after that ticket is the only one to match all six numbers drawn in Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing.
The prize is estimated at $1.35 billion ($724.6 million in cash), the second largest jackpot in the history of the game!
The numbers pulled late Friday night are: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and Mega Ball 14 gold.
The jackpot is the second largest in Mega Millions history!
The jackpot has been rolling since it was last won on Oct. 14, when a $502 million prize was shared by winning tickets in California and Florida.
The 26-drawing jackpot race ended with a bang, with 7,072,832 winning tickets across all nine prize categories in the January 13 draw alone, including the jackpot-winning ticket. Match fourteen tickets to all five white balls to win the game’s $1,000,000 second-tier prize. Four were sold in New York, two in California, and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
To match the four white balls plus the giant ball, there are 164 tickets that have a third degree win. Of those, 27 included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an additional $1 purchase), which was 2X on Friday night; They are worth $20,000 each. The remaining 137 winning second-tier tickets take home the standard prize of $10,000.
The chances of winning the Mega Millions draw are as small as 1 in approximately 303 million.
The Friday night jackpot is the seventh on Friday the 13th since the game began in 2002, and the first on this day since October 2017.
Michigan was particularly lucky with its Mega Millions jackpot on Friday the 13th, winning four of them (June 2008, May 2011, June 2014 and October 2017). The 2017 jackpot was shared with a winner in the state of Rhode Island. Other awards won on Friday the 13th in New York (March 2009) and Ohio (November 2015). However, none came close to $1.35 billion won this time.
Here’s a look at the 10 biggest jackpots won in the United States and the countries where the winning tickets have been sold:
1. $2.04 billion, Arsenal, November 8, 2022 (1 ticket, from California)
2. $1.586 billion, Arsenal, January 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
3. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (1 ticket, from South Carolina)
4. $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, January 13, 2023 (1 ticket from Maine)
5. $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, Jul 29, 2022 (1 ticket, from Illinois)
6. $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (1 ticket, from Michigan)
7. $768.4 million, Arsenal, March 27, 2019 (1 ticket, from Wisconsin)
8. $758.7 million, Arsenal, August 23, 2017 (single ticket, from Massachusetts)
9. $731.1 million, Arsenal, January 20, 2021 (1 ticket from Maryland)
10. $699.8 million, Arsenal, Oct. 4, 2021 (1 ticket, from California)
Related: Here’s what you can buy if you win
The recent big prizes are actually thanks to the math – and to much tougher odds.
In the fall of 2017, lottery officials approved changes to Mega Millions that dramatically lengthened the odds from one in 258.9 million to one in 302.6 million. They made similar changes to Powerball in October 2015, worsening the odds from one in 175.2 million to one in 292.2 million.
The idea was that by making jackpots less common, ticket revenue could build up week after week, creating giant jackpots that grab attention and attract more grown players with $100m or $200m prize pools.
In August 2021, Powerball also added a third weekly draw, which enabled the jackpot to roll over and grow more quickly as people had more opportunities to play and lose. Mega Millions sticks to the weekly graphics.
Thanks to these moves, nine of the 10 biggest lottery prizes have been won since 2017.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C. and the US Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Arsenal The sketches also air here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m
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The New York Lottery is the largest and most profitable in North America, contributing billions of dollars to help support education in New York State.
Revenues are distributed to local school districts in the same legal format used to distribute other state aid to education. According to the New York Lottery, the formula takes into account both the size of the school district and its income level; Larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of lottery school funding.
For more information about the New York Lottery and to view lottery results, please visit nylottery.ny.gov..
New Yorkers with a gambling addiction, or who know someone, can find help by calling the state’s toll-free HOPEline number at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY ( 467369). Standard text rates may apply.
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