NJ ticket hits $521M jackpot

Payout ranks No. 4 in history of Mega Millions winners

Friday was a good day for minting multimillionaires.

Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing netted $521 million for a single ticket sold in New Jersey, the game’s multistate agency said. The New Jersey Lottery tweeted that the winning ticket was purchased at a Lukoil store in Riverdale, about 30 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan.

New Jersey Lottery tweeted “CHECK YOUR TICKETS NEW JERSEY!! One lucky ticket sold at Riverdale Lukoil South in Riverdale was the sole winner of last night’s $521 million #MegaMillionsjackpot!!”

It’s the fourth-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever and comes six years to the day of the biggest jackpot in game history, a monster $656 million pot split three ways.

The winning numbers in Friday’s drawing were 11, 28, 31, 46 and 59, plus Mega Ball 1, the game announced in a news release with not one but two exclamation points.

If these stories of huge lottery payoffs seem familiar, it’s a deliberate move by the Multi-State Lottery Association to get fewer jackpot winners and draw attention to big winners, such as the holder or holders of the New Jersey ticket, as well as the last big jackpot for Powerball, a $457 million winning ticket sold in Pennsylvania on March 17.

Here’s how Mega Millions used to work: Players picked five numbers from 1 to 75 and a Mega Ball of 1 to 15. The odds of winning the top prize were 1 in 258,890,850.

Then, in October, Mega Millions changed the rules.

Now players pick numbers from 1 to 70 and a Mega Ball of 1 to 25. The odds of winning the jackpot are now 1 in 302,575,350.