The new year will ring in brightly for a lucky Mega Millions winner in California: after three months of the top lottery prize rolling over, a ticket worth $1.22bn matched all six numbers in Friday night’s drawing, according to the lottery’s website.
The winning ticket was sold at the Circle K in Cottonwood, a rural town of about 6,000 people roughly 145 miles (233km) north of Sacramento just off Interstate 5 in Shasta county. The winning numbers, including the Mega, were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and 6.
Ishar Gill, a son of the store owner, said the winning ticket was “a blessing” for the small town. The identity of the winner or winners was not immediately known.
“We don’t have the slightest clue of who may have won it or who may have sold it,” Gill told the Associated Press. “But congratulations to the winner.”
The Circle K where the winning ticket was sold will earn a $1m bonus – the highest a California Lottery retail partner can earn, the Mega Millions website said.
“Well, it’s a giant win in a small town,” California Lottery spokesperson Carolyn Becker said in a statement.
Two other California players matched five out of six numbers for prizes of $787,500 each. One was sold in Roseville and the other in San Bernardino.
The total amount of the Mega Millions jackpot would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Friday night’s drawing is an estimated $549.7m. The state of California does not tax lottery winnings.
“With someone hanging on to what is now a very, very valuable small piece of paper, our advice for the player who hit the jackpot tonight is make sure you sign the back of that ticket,” Becker said. “Keep it safe. It’s really important that you don’t lose it, because it is literally your ticket to the prize money.”
The winner now has a year to come forward to claim their prize while the secondary prize winners have six months. The Mega Millions jackpot will roll back to its starting point of $20m for Tuesday’s drawing.
Friday’s jackpot is the fifth-largest in Mega Millions history. The biggest lottery jackpot winner ever was in 2022 when a single winner who purchased a ticket in Altadena, California, raked in a $2.04bn Powerball jackpot. But the largest-ever Mega Millions jackpot win was from a ticket worth $1.6bn that sold in Florida in August 2023.
Despite the game’s long odds of one in 302.6m, players continued to purchase tickets as the size of the grand prize grew. Until Friday, the last time a Mega Millions player hit the top prize was 10 September.
The California Lottery estimates that during the nearly four-month period that the jackpot continued to build, it raised an additional $89.5m for public schools in Mega Millions sales alone.
Mega Millions and Powerball are sold in 45 states, as well as Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands. Powerball is also sold in Puerto Rico.
Mega Millions ticket prices are set to rise from $2 to $5 in April. The increase will be one of many changes that officials say will result in improved jackpot odds, more frequent giant prizes and even larger payouts.
