A single winning $1.35bn Mega Millions ticket has been sold
In the first ever Mega Millions jackpot in the state, a Maine resident claims the second-highest prize won by a single ticket holder
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Your support makes all the difference.A single winning $1.35bn (£820m) Mega Millions ticket has been sold in Maine, in the state’s first jackpot.
The winning numbers, drawn on Friday, were 30, 43, 45, 46 and 61, and the gold Mega Ball was 14.
The winner has yet to be identified, according to the Associated Press (AP). The odds to win were one in 302.6 million after three months went by without a winner.
Pat McDonald, the director of the Ohio lottery as well as the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on Saturday: “Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first ever Mega Millions jackpot.”
It’s the second-largest jackpot in the history of the lottery and the fourth time that the win exceeded $1bn.
The largest ever jackpot won by an individual ticket holder, $1.53bn (£1.25bn), was claimed by a South Carolina resident in October 2018.
Friday’s win was the seventh time a grand prize had been awarded on Friday 13th, a date regarded by some as unlucky.
In order to get the full winnings of $1.35bn, the lucky ticket holder must opt to receive the funds in annual payments stretching over 29 years, but most of those who win choose to receive a reduced amount in cash – for Friday’s win, the cash option is worth $724.6m (£592.4m).
The drawing for the grand prize on Tuesday will be for the possibility to win around $20m (£16m), AP reported. The cash option will be $10.7m.
Before Friday, there had been 25 drawings in a row without a winner.
According to Mega Millions, there were 7 million winning tickets in nine prize categories on Friday, 14 of which each won $1m. Four of those were sold in New York, two were sold in California, and the others were sold in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.
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