NEW YORK (WABC) — A single ticket holder in Maine will be celebrating 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 gaming history!
The numbers drawn on Friday night were: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and Gold Mega Ball 14.
The jackpot is the second largest in Mega Millions history!
The jackpot had been rolling since it was last won on Oct. 14, when a $502 million prize was shared between winning tickets in California and Florida.
This run of 26 jackpot drawings ends with a bang, with 7,072,832 winning tickets across all nine prize levels in the January 13 drawing alone, including the jackpot-winning ticket. Fourteen tickets matched all five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize of $1 million. Four were sold in New York, two in California, and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
For matching four white balls plus the Mega Ball, 164 tickets have a third-tier win. Of those, 27 included the optional Megaplier (available in most states with an additional $1 purchase), which went 2X on Friday night; They are worth $20,000 each. The remaining 137 second-tier winning tickets take home the standard prize of $10,000.
The chances of winning a Mega Millions drawing are slim, one in almost 303 million.
Friday night’s jackpot is the seventh on a Friday the 13th since the game began in 2002, and the first on such a day since October 2017.
Michigan has been particularly lucky with the Mega Millions jackpots on Friday the 13th, winning four of them (June 2008, May 2011, June 2014 and October 2017). That 2017 jackpot was shared with a winner in Rhode Island. Other Friday the 13th jackpots have been won in New York (March 2009) and Ohio (November 2015). None of them, however, came close in size to the estimated $1.35 billion won this time.
Here’s a look at the 10 biggest US jackpots that have been won and the states where the winning tickets were sold:
1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, November. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
2. $1.586 billion, Powerball, January. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
3. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, October. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
4. $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, January. 13, 2023 (one ticket from Maine)
5. $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
6. $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, January. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
7. $768.4 million Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
8. $758.7 million, Powerball, August. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
9. $731.1 million, Powerball, January. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
10. $699.8 million, Powerball, October. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
RELATED: This is what you could buy if you win
The credit for the recent big prizes really goes to the math and harder odds.
In the fall of 2017, lottery officials approved changes to Mega Millions that significantly increased 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 add up week after week, creating giant jackpots that would turn heads and attract more players who had grown indifferent to $100 million jackpots or more. $200 million.
In August 2021, Powerball also added a third weekly draw, allowing the jackpot to roll over and grow even faster as people had more opportunities to play and lose. Mega Millions has kept the two weekly draws.
Thanks to those moves, nine of the top 10 lottery prizes have been won since 2017.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
power ball The drawings are also broadcast here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m.
mega millions Draws are broadcast on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 p.m.
The New York Lottery is the largest and most profitable lottery in North America, contributing billions of dollars to help support education in New York State.
Revenues are distributed to local school districts using the same legal formula 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 proportionally larger shares of Lottery school funds.
For more information on the New York Lottery and to view lottery results, visit nylottery.ny.gov..
New Yorkers struggling with gambling addiction, or who know someone who does, can find help by calling the state’s toll-free and confidential HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY (467369). Standard text rates may apply.
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