It’s a mega win for $1.3B ticket bought in Illinois
CHICAGO — A single ticket bought at a gas station and convenience store in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot.
According to megamillions.com, there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway store in Des Plaines.
The winning jackpot numbers were: 13-36-45-5767, Mega Ball: 14.
“We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, the current lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery’s website.
The jackpot was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
Lottery officials had estimated the winning take at $1.28 billion, but revised it to $1.337 billion Saturday.
The total prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $780.5 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
According to the Illinois Lottery, the store that sold the ticket is a pretty big winner, too; it will receive half a million dollars just for selling the ticket.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.
Illinois is among the states where winners of more than $250,000 can choose to not reveal their names; Illinois Lottery spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said the vast majority of those winners do just that.