One lucky Californian became the state’s newest billionaire after the winning numbers for a $1.22 billion jackpot were drawn Friday night.
The winning numbers were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and the Mega Ball number was 6. Megaplier was 3x.
The winning ticket with all six numbers was sold at Sunshine Food and Gas, located at 3505 Rhonda Road. Located in Cottonwood, Northern California. The winning jackpot was the fifth-largest in the game’s history.
Two other California tickets matched five numbers and took home $787,543. Tickets were sold at the following locations:
Cardenas Market – 2045 East Highland Ave., San Bernardino Chevron – 1400 Blue Oaks Blvd., Roseville
Lottery officials said 842,839 other winning tickets were drawn Friday, with prizes ranging from $2 to $9,487. Lottery sales raised an estimated $89.5 million for the state’s public schools.
Friday night’s grand prize winner will have to make a big decision: take up the annuity option or pay in cash. The one-time payment is estimated to be $549.7 million after tax.
If the annuity option is selected, the winner will receive a one-time payment, followed by 29 annual payments in 5% increments until the total amount won is reached.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are approximately 1 in 302.6 million.
According to USA Mega, which tracks Mega Millions statistics, the most common Mega Millions numbers are 10, 3, 17, 14, and 46 as the first five numbers. The most common Mega Ball number is 11.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Tickets cost $2 and there are a total of nine ways to win prizes. The draw takes place every Tuesday and Friday at 8pm
A map of where you can buy lottery tickets in California can be found here.
