After months with no big winner, one lucky lottery ticket sold in New York won the Mega Millions jackpot on Friday night.
The game’s top prize climbed to an estimated $476 million, with a cash option of $253.1 million, for Friday’s drawing. The estimated $476 million marks the 13th largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, according to the lottery game.
Before Friday, no one had won the Mega Millions jackpot since January 31, causing the game’s top prize to grow larger and larger over recent months. The chances of winning a Mega Millions jackpot are incredibly slim – with odds standing at about 1 in 302 million.
The $476 million will only be distributed if the winner chooses the annuity option, which distributes the prize over 29 annual payments. Most lottery winners opt for the one-time, lump-sum cash payment – and the final amount taken home depends on state and federal taxes.
Here’s what you need to know.
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Mega Millions winning numbers for April 14, 2023
The winning numbers for the Friday night drawing were 23, 27, 41, 48, 51 with Mega Ball 22 and Megaplier 2X.
Did anyone win Mega Millions last night?
One lucky ticket sold in New York matched all six numbers plus the Mega ball to win the estimated $476 million jackpot on Friday night, Mega Millions said.
According to the New York State Lottery website, the winning ticket was sold at Liberty Beer & Convenience in Queens’ Ozone Park neighborhood.
It was unclear if a winner had come forward yet. USA TODAY reached out to the New York State Lottery for further details Saturday morning.
Beyond the jackpot, thousands of other tickets won across Mega Millions’ smaller prize tiers on Friday – including two tickets, sold in Massachusetts and Illinois, that matched all five white balls to win $1 million each.
What are my chances of winning Mega Millions?
It’s important to know that the odds of taking home a Mega Millions jackpot are extremely slim.
- The odds of winning the jackpot are 302,575,350 to 1.
- The odds to match all five white balls are 12,607,306 to 1.
“Imagine you write the letters to ‘Mega Millions’ on individual pieces of paper, mix them up, and let your cat randomly select letters. Your cat is five times more likely to correctly spell ‘Mega Millions’ than you are to win,” Matthew Kovach, an assistant professor of economics at Virginia Tech, previously told USA TODAY.
Kovach added that you are also more likely to be struck by lightning twice in your lifetime than win the lottery.
Why are lottery jackpots growing so large? Here’s what experts have to say.
How do I play Mega Millions?
To enter Mega Millions, players pick six numbers – or choose to have the lottery machine generate a random “Easy Pick” or “Quick Pick”:
- Five numbers will go from 1 to 70 (white balls)
- One number can be picked from 1 to 25 (gold Mega Ball)
If your ticket matches all six of the winning numbers from the drawing, you’ll win the jackpot. There are also smaller prizes depending on how many balls your numbers match.
The cost to play Mega Millions is $2 a ticket. You can add the Megaplier for $1, which will increase the amount of your potential prize up to five times the original prize (except for the jackpot).
Mega Millions can be played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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