Winning Ticket For The $393 Million Mega Millions Jackpot Sold In Illinois


A lottery ticket buyer from Palos Heights, Illinois, has won the massive $393 million jackpot for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing making him/her an instant millionaire. According to a press release issued by Mega Millions, the winning ticket matched all the six numbers drawn on Friday night.

At $393 million, this is the largest Mega Millions jackpot in almost a year and is the fifth-largest prize amount in the Mega Millions’ 15-year history. The winner will get $247 million in cash once the person shows up and contacts them to claim the prize money. According to ABC News, the winning ticket was purchased at Nick’s Barbecue in Palos Heights. That said, even $393 million pales in comparison to the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot that was won in January 2016. However, that amount was shared between several ticket holders.

Apart from the jackpot winner, there were also three other winners for the second prize. These winners were reported to be from Washington, California, and Ohio. Of these, the winning ticket from Washington also included the optional Megaplier which costs an extra $1 over and above the $2 ticket price. This week was also the first instance when both Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots surged past the $350 million mark. Saturday night’s Powerball drawing is expected cross $356 million. The winner will also get to take home cash amounting to $224 million.

The latest Mega Millions jackpot is the fourth one to be won in 2017. The jackpot amount has been increasing since a California man named David Tapp last won it on April 28. He won $61 million. This was after another California man Jack Freney won $191 million a few months earlier. A Texas man named Eliberto Cantu, who won $177 million from a ticket he purchased in Arkansas, was the other jackpot winner this year.

August seems to be a rather good month when it comes to increasing the odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot. In its history, 11 Mega Million jackpots have been won in August. These include two of the largest jackpots – $336 million in 2009 and $330 million in 2007. All said, there is no denying the fact that the odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot remain extremely low – one in about 258.9 million for Mega Millions. For Powerball, the figure stands at one in about 292.2 million.

[Featured Image by G-Jun Yam/AP Images]

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