Winning $1.22 Billion Mega Millions Ticket Sold in California
On Friday night, a lucky individual in California became an overnight billionaire after winning the $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot. The winning ticket was sold at a convenience store in the city of San Jose, making it the largest lottery prize ever won in the state.
The winning numbers for the historic jackpot were 17, 19, 27, 40, 68 and Mega Ball 2. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are incredibly slim, with players having a 1 in 302.6 million chance of matching all six numbers.
The lucky winner has not yet come forward to claim their prize, but they have up to a year to do so. Once they come forward, they will have the option of taking the full $1.22 billion jackpot in annual payments over 29 years or opting for a lump sum cash payment of $739.6 million before taxes.
The convenience store that sold the winning ticket, known as the Kavanagh Liquors, is set to receive a $1 million bonus for selling the winning ticket. Store owner Kim Kavanagh expressed her excitement over the news, stating that she couldn’t believe it when she found out that her store had sold the winning ticket.
The Mega Millions jackpot has been rolling over since September 2021, with no one matching all six numbers in the previous drawings. The massive jackpot captured the attention of people across the country, with long lines forming at lottery retailers as players hoped to strike it rich.
The $1.22 billion jackpot is the second-largest in Mega Millions history, falling just short of the record-breaking $1.537 billion jackpot won in October 2018. The winner of that jackpot chose to remain anonymous and took home a lump sum cash payment of $877.8 million.
As the winner of the $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot prepares to come forward and claim their prize, the rest of us can only dream of what we would do with that kind of money. Whether they choose to travel the world, buy a mansion, or donate to charity, one thing is for sure – their life is about to change in ways they never could have imagined.