Mega Millions Jackpot: Florida ticket holder wins $1.58 BILLION prize – largest sum in lottery history
- The winning numbers were 13, 19, 20, 32, 33 with a golden megaball of 14 – which equated to one lucky Florida player, according to the lottery’s website
- That individual now has the option of claiming a one-time lump sum payment of approximately $757.2 million or elect to claim the full prize in 29 annual payments
A person in Florida has won the $1.58 billion Mega Millions prize — the largest sum in lottery history.
The ticket winner now has the option of claiming a one-time lump sum payment of approximately $757.2 million or elect to claim the full prize in 29 annual payments.
The winning numbers were 13, 19, 20, 32, 33 with a golden megaball of 14 – which equated to one lucky Florida player, according to the lottery’s website.
The $1.58 billion win is slightly larger than South Carolina’s October 2018 Mega Millions win of $1.537 billion, according to lottery officials.
As of Tuesday night, no ticket has matched all six numbers drawn for nearly four months since April 18.
The ticket winner now has the option of claiming a one-time lump sum payment of approximately $757.2 million or elect to claim the full prize in 29 annual payments
A person in Florida has won the $1.58 billion Mega Millions prize — the largest sum in lottery history. The winning numbers were 13, 19, 20, 32, 33 with a golden megaball of 14 – which equated to one lucky Florida player, according to the lottery’s website
Tuesday night’s jackpot was the third largest in US lottery history.
Mega Millions tickets are $2 each and are sold in every state except Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada.
The chance of winning the Mega Millions jackpot was around 1 in 302.6 million. That odds are worse than the 1 in 11.5 million odds of being bitten by a shark or the 1 in 700,000 odds of giving birth to identical quadruplets.
Although there hasn’t been a Mega Millions jackpot winner in recent months, there have been a number of wins at the start of the year.
“This year began with six jackpot winners in less than four months — a number far more typical of a full year and indicative of the truly random nature of lottery draws,” the lottery said.
There have been a number of billion-dollar lottery winners recently, including two separate billion-dollar Powerball tickets sold in California.
A single ticket matched all six numbers drawn on July 19 – meaning someone had won the third highest prize ever in the multi-state lottery.
Although the winner is known, lottery officials confirmed that the winning ticket was sold from a Los Angeles supermarket a few blocks from Skid Row homeless camps.
California Lottery officials previously confirmed that Las Palmitas Mini Market was the store where the winning ticket was sold. Its owner, Nabor Herrera, also gets a $1 million bonus from Powerball.
Herrera said he only realized he’d sold the winning ticket when he got to work early Thursday and saw cameras parked outside the store, which he originally intended for a film scene.
And it was the second time someone from California had found gold in less than a year. In February, Edwin Castro came forward to claim the $2.04 billion November drawing prize. He settled on the lump sum of $997.6 million.
The best mega million jackpots
1. $1.580 billion 8/8/2023 – 1 ticket – Florida
2. $1.537 billion 10/23/2018 – 1 ticket – South Carolina
3. $1.348 billion 01/13/2023 – 1 ticket – Maine
4. $1.337 billion 07/29/2022 1 ticket – Illinois
5. $1.050 billion 01/22/2021 1 ticket – Michigan
6. $656 million 03/30/2012 – 3 tickets – Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
7. $648 million 12/17/2013 – 2 tickets – California, Georgia
8. $543 million 07/24/2018 – 1 ticket – California
9. $536 million 07/08/2016 – 1 ticket – Indiana
10. $533 million 03/30/2018 – 1 ticket – New Jersey
Source: MegaMillions