Someone’s life has just changed in about a billion different ways.
According to the lottery’s website, the winning ticket was purchased by a Maine resident ahead of Friday’s $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawing — the second-largest in the game’s history.
The lotto winner matched all six numbers in the game, which hasn’t had a jackpot winner since Oct. 14. The winning numbers were 30, 43, 45, 46, 61, and Mega Ball 14.
It was a lucky Friday the 13th for one player who beat the long odds of 1 in 302.6 million.
The winner has not been revealed publicly. Some state lottery officials do not identify winners out of concern for their privacy and security.
With no winner earlier this week, Friday’s jackpot grew to surpass the $1.35 billion cash value for the July 2022 winner. It is still dwarfed by the $1.53 billion won in October 2018.
The largest lottery jackpot ever paid in the United States was the result of a Powerball draw in November, which was worth $2.04 billion in cash.
The winner on Friday will have the option of accepting 30 annuity payments worth the $1.35 billion cash value of the jackpot or an immediate payment of $724.6 million.
According to personal finance and tax advice platform Kiplinger, the “lump sum” option comes with 24% automatically withheld by the US Internal Revenue Service, with more of it potentially owed in taxes at year’s end depending on a winner’s filing status and claims.
The jackpot has shrunk to $20 million for the next drawing on Tuesday night.
