Friday the 13th turns out to be one of the luckiest days for someone who was able to grab the Mega Millions USD 1.35 billion jackpot prize. Yes, folks. There’s only one winner who will be getting the entire prize money. It will be an extraordinary 2023 for the winner, without a doubt.
The prize is an estimated $1.35 billion ($724.6 million cash), which is the second-largest jackpot in the history of the game. Lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, Pat McDonald said, “Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot. It’s the fourth billion-dollar jackpot in Mega Millions history.” The big win was the lottery’s seventh on a Friday the 13th — a date normally considered unlucky — since the game began in 2002.
Currently, the winner’s identity is still unknown. Mega Millions officials have also assured that there is absolutely only one person who was able to match all six numbers: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and gold Mega Ball 14. The biggest jackpot won in Mega Millions history was back in 2018 which totalled USD1.53 billion.
More than 7 million winners in total
The January 13 draw has a mind-boggling total of winners, too. This tallies at 7,072,832 winning tickets across all nine prize tiers. Fourteen tickets matched all five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize of USD 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.
You might also like to read: One Winning Ticket: USD 2.04 Billion Powerball
There were 164 tickets that matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball — a third-tier category win. This included 27 the optional Megaplier (this goes with an extra USD1 purchase) winning USD20,000 each. The remaining 137 second-tier winning tickets take home the standard USD10,000 prize.
Backgrounder on the winner’s hometown
The sole winner hails from Northeastern Maine. The winner placed their bet at “Hometown Gas and Grill” in Lebanon, Maine. The owner, Fred Cotreau said, “Your wheels start turning. Once I got the news from the lottery commission early this morning. Right after, I checked my own tickets. I’m excited to find out who it is. Hopefully, it’s a local who can sure put it to good use.”
Here’s an interesting list of the 10 largest US jackpots that have been won:
(and where the winning tickets were sold)
- $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 (one ticket from Maine)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
- $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
- $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The chances of winning a Mega Millions drawing are slim at one in nearly 303 million.
The next drawing is Tuesday, with a jackpot set back to the starting value of $20 million.
Absolutely a life-changing jackpot! I wouldn’t know what to do with all that money. It will be risky business if the winner comes out publicly with their identity accidentally leaked to the press. Hopefully, they remain blissfully anonymous and won’t be overwhelmed by the very sudden change of luck. The charities that Mega Millions support also benefit from these games. Are you also an avid lottery bettor? Just let us know in the comment section below. We welcome any suggestion, insight or reaction from you guys. Hope to hear from you soon! Cheers!
