Cashing in for the holidays!
A Mega Millions player in Georgia won the estimated $980 million grand prize Friday night, the largest prize in state history, ending the game’s longest drought between jackpot winners.
The winning numbers were 1, 8, 11, 12, 57 with the white Mega ball 7.
The ticket was sold at an undisclosed location in Newnan, Ga. — located 40 miles southwest of Atlanta.
Friday’s winner has the option to choose between the $980 million prize paid out over 30 years or the one-time lump sum estimated at $452.2 million.
A player in Michigan scored $3 million Friday after matching all five white balls and playing the 3X multiplier.
It is the largest lottery jackpot ever won in the Peach State, surpassing the $478 million Powerball drawing won by an anonymous player on Oct. 23, 2024.
Georgia is now home to 17 Mega Millions’ winners — and the state’s first lottery winner in over eight years.
In January 2017, ADirectConnection LLC. stepped forward and claimed their $83 million jackpot from the drawing that was held on November 18, 2016.
The Georgia ticket holder, who has yet to be identified, is the first Mega Millions player to match all six numbers since an anonymous Virginia man did so on June 27, winning a $348 million jackpot.
There had been 39 consecutive winless drawings between the jackpot winners.
The $980 million pot is also the eighth-largest in the game’s 29-year history, surpassing the $810 million prize that sold at a Texas gas station on Sept. 10, 2024.
Friday’s win is the largest prize since the historic revamp in April, which increased ticket prices from $2 to $5.
The revamp, marketed as “bigger and better,” was created to make larger prizes for all non-jackpot tier winners, better odds to win the jackpot and a larger starting jackpot of $50 million instead of the original $20 million.
The odds of hitting a jackpot in the newly revamped game are 1 in 290,472,336.
The game resets to the new starting pot of $50 million for Tuesday’s drawing.
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