New York (WABC) — A ticketholder in Maine will be celebrating a very happy New Year as the ticket was the only ticket that matched all six numbers drawn in Friday night’s Millionaire drawing.
The prize is estimated at $1.35 billion ($724.6 million in cash), the second largest jackpot in the game’s history!
The numbers drawn late Friday night were: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and Gold Mega Ball 14.
In Maine, the owner of Lebanon’s “Hometown Gas and Grill” was eager to see who bought a lucky ticket from his shop.
“Your wheels are starting to turn. I got the word from the lottery board early this morning. After that, I checked my lottery ticket. I’m glad to know who it is. Hopefully it’s a local and he’ll put it to good use,” Fred Cotreau Say.
Even if you’re not the winning ticket holder, don’t throw away your ticket right away. Tickets worth $1 million were sold in Manhattan, Long Island City and other parts of New York.
The jackpot has been rolling since the last jackpot was on Oct. 14, when winning tickets in California and Florida shared a $502 million jackpot.
The 26-draw Grand Prix ended with a bang, with 7,072,832 winning tickets across all nine prize classes, including winning tickets, in the January 13 draw alone. Fourteen tickets matched all five white balls to win the $1 million game’s second prize. Four were sold in New York, two in California, and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.
For matching four white balls and super balls, 164 tickets have a third prize. Of those, 27 include the optional Megaplier (available in most states for an extra $1), and 2x Friday night; they’re worth $20,000 each. The remaining 137 secondary winning tickets brought home the standard $10,000 prize.
The chances of winning the Mega Millions lottery are slim, nearly one in 303 million.
The Friday night jackpot draw took place on Friday the 13th and for the first time since the competition began in 2002, it was also the first time since October 2017.
Michigan was particularly lucky to hit the Mega Millions jackpot on Friday the 13th, winning four of them (June 2008, May 2011, June 2014 and October 2017). The 2017 jackpot was shared with a winner in Rhode Island. Other Friday the 13th jackpots were won in New York (March 2009) and Ohio (November 2015). However, none of them came close to this estimate of 1.35 billion won.
Here are the top 10 US jackpots that have been won and the states in which winning tickets were sold:
1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one plane ticket, from California)
2. $1.586 billion, Powerball, January. 13th, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
3. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
4. $1.35 billion, Mega Millions, January. 13, 2023 (one ticket to Maine)
5. $1.337 billion, Millionaire, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
6. $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, January. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
7. $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one lottery ticket, from Wisconsin)
8. $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one plane ticket, from Massachusetts)
9. $731.1 million, Powerball, January. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
10. $699.8 million, Powerball, October. 4th 2021 (one ticket, from California)
RELATED: Here’s What You Can Buy If You Win
The latest jackpot is actually down to math – and better odds.
In the fall of 2017, lottery officials approved changes to Mega Millions that significantly increased the odds of winning the lottery from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million. They made similar changes to Powerball in October 2015, reducing the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million.
The idea is that by reducing the popularity of the jackpot, gate receipts can grow week after week, creating big prizes that grab attention and attract more players who are tired of the roughly $100 million or $200 million top prizes.
In August 2021, Powerball has also added a third weekly drawing, which allows the jackpot to roll over and grow faster as people have more opportunities to play and lose. Mega Millions insists on drawing twice a week.
As a result of these moves, nine of the top 10 lottery prizes have been won since 2017.
Mega Millions takes place in 45 states plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Watch: New York State Lottery Live Daily at 2:30pm & 10:30pm, Wednesday & Saturday at 8:15pm
powerball Drawings will also be played here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59pm
mega million Drawings play on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00pm
The New York Lottery is the largest and most profitable lottery in North America, contributing billions of dollars to help support education in New York State.
Revenue is distributed to local school districts following the same statutory formula used to distribute educational aid in other states. According to the New York Lottery, the formula takes into account both the size of a school district and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive a proportionally larger share of lottery school funding.
For more information on the New York Lottery and to view lottery results, visit nylottery.ny.gov..
New Yorkers struggling with gambling addiction, or who know someone who is, can contact New York State’s toll-free and confidential Hope Line at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or text HOPENY (467369). Standard SMS rates may apply.
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