A lottery ticket sold in California has won the staggering Mega Millions jackpot of $1.22 billion, marking the fifth-largest prize in history. The victorious ticket was purchased at a Circle K store located at 3505 Rhonda Road in Cottonwood, California, and successfully matched the six numbers drawn on Friday night.
The winning combination was 3, 7, 37, 49, 55, with the gold Mega Ball being 6. The cash value for this enormous jackpot is estimated at approximately $549.7 million. Before this drawing, no one had claimed the grand prize in the previous 30 draws, causing the jackpot to swell considerably. The last jackpot win occurred in Texas on September 10, amounting to $810 million.
The odds of hitting the jackpot remain extremely low, calculated at 1 in 302,575,350. Joshua Johnston, the lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, expressed his excitement, congratulating the winner and emphasizing the positive impact of lottery ticket sales on various charitable causes and organizations. He highlighted the substantial contributions to educational programs, parks, and community projects funded via these sales.
Over the course of the 31 drawings leading up to this win, a total of 31.4 million winning tickets were recorded at various prize levels, including 65 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more distributed across 26 different jurisdictions. This recent win marks only the fourth Mega Millions jackpot claimed in 2024, indicating that the year may conclude with the fewest jackpots since the game’s inception in 2002.
Mega Millions tickets are available in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, priced at $2 for a single play.
In a hopeful and positive light, this monumental win serves as a reminder of the joy and transformation such windfalls can bring to an individual’s life. It also underscores the noteworthy contributions that lottery systems make to community resources and services, reinforcing the idea that every ticket purchased supports broader societal benefits.