A Florida resident won a $450 million jackpot in Mega Millions lottery after a draw held on Friday and the cash option would entail $281 million cash prize amount to take home immediately.
The winning numbers are 28, 30, 39, 59, 70 and Gold Mega Ball 10 and one ticket sold in Florida matches them all winning the fourth-largest jackpot in the 15 year history of Mega Millions. However, this is the 10th largest prize in any US ever.
It will be a very Happy New Year for a lucky Mega Millions ticket holder in Florida. Last time, a $42 million prize was won by Kevin Blake, 54, in Michigan and Rhode Island on October 13, 2017.
"Congratulations to Florida on their big jackpot win," said Mega Millions Lead Director and Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica. "This has been an exciting run for Mega Millions players and a great way to start off the new year! But it's not over yet. We're looking forward to Saturday's $570 million Powerball jackpot. Good luck, everyone!"
Apart from the jackpot in Friday's draw, 8 tickets matched five winning numbers and they are sold one each in California, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Virginia. One Oklahoma and one Texas winning ticket included the optional Megaplier, which means the two tickets are worth $3 million due to the 3X Megaplier option, said organizers in a statement.
In total, 2,935,086 tickets won prizes Friday night at all levels, plus the jackpot winner. In this jackpot run, since October 13 there were more than 18.2 million winning tickets at all prize levels. and two each in Oklahoma and Texas. In all, a total of 21 million tickets were sold. The initial amount for jackpot was set at $40 million and it reached ten times over the period as nobody was able to match all the six numbers drawn.
The next Mega Millions jackpot will begin at $40 million ($25 million cash) and the next draw will be held on January 9, 2018.
Apart from Mega Millions, the other lottery Powerball jackpot is currently at $570 million and
the draw is on Saturday night. If a winner chooses for cash prize, he may get $358.5 million in
Powerball lottery draw tonight.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot was 1 in 302.5 million, while for Powerball, it is in the range of 1 in 292.2 million. The lotteries are allowed in 44 states besides Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On an average, Americans spend about $200 a year on lottery tickets.
Here's what past winner said:
Friday the 13th turned out a winning night for Kevin Blake, 54, matched the five white balls and the Mega Ball drawn on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.
"I've played the same numbers for years, it didn't even occur to me that it was Friday the 13th," said Blake. "I tucked the ticket in my wallet and didn't give it another thought," said Blake. "My wife and I went about our normal weekend routine. Little did we know that I had a ticket worth $21 million in my pocket the entire time."
Blake's wife, Stephanie, who was watching the news Saturday night after Kevin had gone to bed initially felt happy that someone from the town won. She woke Kevin up and they started looking more into the story about the winner, and decided to pull up the numbers." The numbers are their birthdays and soon they realized that they won a $42 million Mega Millions jackpot
After a sleepless night, the Blakes went for a walk the next morning to try and process what had happened the night before and Stephanie went to work as usual. Instead of annuity plan, they chose to receive the $21 million jackpot as a one-time lump sum and after taxes, they received about $9.3 million.
"We've always lived within our means and had a comfortable life and this won't change how we approach things," said Blake who wanted to continue his job while his wife too goes to the office. "We're both planning to continue working and will use this to pay off bills and then invest the remainder for our retirement," said Blake.
