Mega Millions Swells To $415 Million Ahead Of New Year’s Day Drawing
Looks like the Mega Millions lottery is going to start out 2019 with a bang, and the player who gets all six of the winning numbers on New Year’s Day can start the new year as a multimillionaire. According to the official Mega Millions website, 2019 ushers in the eighth biggest jackpot in the history the big jackpot game, with a whopping $415 million up for grabs. That will be the equivalent of $248.8 million in cash if someone wins the drawing.
USA Today reports that the Mega Millions jackpot rolled to $415 million Friday after no ticket matched all six numbers: 9, 10, 25, 37, 38, and Mega Ball 21. During that drawing, the jackpot up for grabs was $370 million. While no winner took all, there were five lucky people who won $1 million apiece. The winners were in the states of California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In addition, there was one lucky Match 5 winner in the state of Washington. That person had the Megaplier, so they won $2 million. For those not familiar with the Megaplier option, here’s what that means, according to Lottery USA.
The game costs $2 a ticket and is played by picking five numbers from a set of 70 and one Mega Ball number from a set of 25. For an additional fee of $1, players can purchase the Megaplier option to multiply all non-jackpot wins by the draw’s Megaplier number.
Mega Millions shared another bit of lottery trivia about the New Year’s drawing on their website, stating, “Next Tuesday’s drawing will be the fifth time Mega Millions has been drawn on the first day of a new year. The jackpot has been won once on the day – January 1, 2008.”
One of the biggest mysteries of 2018 was who won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot. The Inquisitr reported that person beat odds of 1 in 303 million to win the jackpot on October 23, 2018, and that the winning ticket was sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina. As of Friday, however, no one has came forward to claim the money.
Did you lose a winning Mega Millions ticket worth $1.5 billion? Looks like someone might have. https://t.co/OCXjLFVdYa
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) December 29, 2018
The mystery jackpot winner would net about $900 million after taxes, and the “almost-billionaire” has until April 21 to claim their winnings. If that person doesn’t claim the sizable pot, then the money will go back to the places it was collected from. That means that the money will be refunded to the 44 states that participate in the Mega Millions drawing, along with participating locales Washington DC and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
According to the Huffington Post, a spokesperson at the South Carolina lottery said that winners often take their time coming forward. They went on to say that the winner of October jackpot’s silence seemed “unusual,” when you consider the staggering amount of the prize.
The winning numbers of the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot were 5, 28, 62, 65, 70, and Megaball 5.
