Someone who bought a lottery ticket at a gas station in Northern California has won an estimated $1.22 billion in the Mega Millions drawing on Friday night, beating nearly impossible odds to take home one of the largest jackpots ever in the United States.
The winning ticket was sold at Sunshine Food and Gas in Cottonwood, Calif., according to the California State Lottery. The winning numbers were 3, 7, 37, 49 and 55, and the gold Mega Ball was 6.
The ticket buyer’s identity was not immediately known; jackpot winners have up to a year to claim their prize. But lottery officials in California, where the names of winners are public record, are expected to announce who has won.
The winner will have the choice of taking a lump sump payment of about $549.7 million in cash, or the entire jackpot amount in 30 annual payments.
The jackpot was the fifth-largest Mega Millions prize, the lottery organization said in a statement. It is the ninth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
The last time a Mega Millions player hit the jackpot was in September, when the prize was $810 million. The ticket that won the largest-ever Mega Millions jackpot, worth $1.58 billion, was sold in Florida in August 2023. There have been three larger jackpots, all won from Powerball drawings.
Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in Mega Millions and Powerball’s lottery drawings because of changes to the games over the years and higher ticket prices. More than 10 jackpots in the country have surpassed $1 billion since 2016, including three this year.
The Mega Millions jackpot was won just four times in 2024, including on Friday, the fewest in a single year in the game’s 22-year history.
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