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Someone could win the fourth-largest lottery jackpot in United States history Friday night, but two recent Mega Millions winners likely aren’t regretting their decisions to play even if they don’t claim that jackpot on July 29. One of the winners made the lucky play via a popular US online gambling channel.
Both players won prizes of at least $1 million by matching the five white balls in the July 22 drawing. Their return on just a few dollars is quite impressive, even if it doesn’t come close to breaking any records.
Illinois, New York Mega Millions players cash in big
WGN-TV Chicago Illinois Lottery says the JM Food Shop on Route 47 in Huntley sold a Mega Millions ticket that matched the five white ball numbers in sequence drawn on July 22. Those numbers were 7-29-60-63-66.
Nearly simultaneously, a Wednesday Jackpocket claims a player in Westchester County, New York, used its service to buy a Mega Millions ticket that also matched those five numbers in sequence for the July 22 drawing.
The New York player opted to spend the extra dollar on the Megaplier, however. For the July 22 drawing, the Megaplier was 3X. Matching all five white ball numbers to play Mega Millions will grant a prize of $1 million.
Thus, the New York player’s win is worth $3 million. Mega Millions says the odds of a ticket matching all five white ball numbers in the proper sequence are 1 in 12,607,306. For the Jackpocket player, they’re opting to spend the $3 on the ticket paid off big-time.
Near-record jackpot up for grabs at Friday’s Mega Millions drawing
If you’re in a state that Jackpocket serves or that offers online lottery ticket sales via another channel, that could be a clever way to play before the July 29 drawing. Lottery retailers could be slammed on Friday.
If someone does match all six numbers in the right order Friday, that group or person will hold the ticket to the fourth-largest lottery win in US history at $1.025 billion. Should no one accomplish that feat, the jackpot would need some more time to move into the third position.
NBC New York says the third-largest win came in January of last year at $1.05 billion. That was a Mega Millions jackpot as well, and the winners hit the numbers on a single ticket. The second-largest win was a Mega Millions play in October 2018, valued at $1.537 billion, and the record $1.586 billion Powerball win came in January 2016.
The odds of hitting the jackpot Friday are astronomical at 1 in over 302 million. However, as retailers across the participating states could sell millions of tickets, the July 29 drawing could very well produce a new US top-10 lottery win.
