According to lottery officials, someone claimed the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot, and the winning ticket was bought in Illinois.
The numbers in Friday’s draw were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.
According to officials, the chance of matching all five numbers and the “Mega Ball” number is 1 in 303 million.
By comparison, some estimates say you have a 1 in 9 million probability of being struck by lightning on two separate occasions.
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The massive $1.28 billion jackpot remains the nation’s third-largest prize and results from 29 straight draws without anyone matching all six of the game’s digits. The last time somebody hit the Mega Millions jackpot was April 15.
The only big awards have been worth at least $1 billion, including a record jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in the January 2016 Powerball drawing.
The October 2018 ($1.5 billion) and January 2021 ($1 billion) Mega Millions of pictures are the only other two jackpots to exceed the $1 billion mark.
Mega Millions of jackpots start at a $20 million annuity and increase based on game sales and interest rates on 30-year US Treasuries. The chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Seven other less valuable prizes depend on how many and what type of balls the ticket matches. The odds of winning $1 million in second place—if the ticket matches five white balls but not the Mega Millions ball—is 1 in 12,607,306.
Mega Millions of tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands, with drawings held on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and DC, but buyers must be in that state.
Schultz said he didn’t believe himself to a materialistic before winning, so his most extravagant assets were cars and real estate.
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“I’ve found for myself and many people I’ve met and interviewed that when you win the jackpot in the lottery, it increases, or at least can increase your character. It can change your life, dude!! It changes your lifestyle, and you can get anything or everything you want. Life changes, and you get your karma for all the hard work that you have done. It doesn’t necessarily alter who you are,” he said.
He said that while he rarely plays the lottery these days, he bought one ticket for Friday night’s drawing.
“It can transform everything, connections, your ability to live life,” he said. “I think it can buy time, which can be valuable. And you know, it’s one of the most surreal, life-changing things that can happen to somebody.”
He said operating with a financial advisor will help people without knowledge with millions of dollars because the consultant will help winners comprehend what they can realistically do with their winnings.
The Mega Millions jackpot history is $1.537 billion, won by a single ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018. This is the second largest jackpot for any lottery game in the US, although it is the largest lottery prize in the world won by a single ticket, according to Mega Millions.
The biggest jackpot of any US lottery game was $1.586 billion – the January 13, 2016 Powerball prize shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Timothy Schultz, who won the $28 million Powerball jackpot in 1999 and now hosts a lottery podcast, told CNN that winning can “really turn your life upside down.”
He said after checking his numbers in the paper and realizing he had won, he made some of the first phone calls to lawyers and financial advisers.