It’s official!
The Mega Millions Jackpot was irretrievably triumphed on Tuesday, October 23rd 2018 when a single lucky ticket holder from the state of South Carolina nailed $1.537 billion with numbers 5, 28, 62, 65 and 70, plus the gold Mega Ball 5.
According to the official website, the recent pot is one of the biggest lottery rewards in history, since former records from March 2012 and January 2016 didn’t come nearly as close…
Gordon Medenica, lead director of the Mega Millions Group and Maryland Lottery & Gaming, is enthusiastic about the win saying that the moment the entire country has been waiting for is finally here. He also commented:
“This is truly a historic occasion. We’re so happy for the winner, and we know the South Carolina Education Lottery can’t wait to meet the lucky ticket holder.”
Months before the greatest bonanza was struck, a group of 11 colleagues from California managed to snatch the $543 million prize, thusly becoming the next in line to claim the pot (July 24). Other jackpots happened approximately every two to three months – on January 5th in Florida ($451 million), on March 30th in New Jersey ($533 million) and on May 4th ($142 million).
Also, the lottery sales reached an incredible number of second prize tickets, totaling 36 pieces. The tickets were sold all across the country, but eight were drawn in California, four in Florida and New York, two in North Carolina, Michigan and so on...
Interestingly, a player from the state of Texas and one fellow citizen from Florida managed to hit the optional Megaplier, cashing in $3 million each.
According to the source, there were exactly 15,750,013 winning tickets on Tuesday night. However, for matching four white balls along with the Mega Ball, only 419 tickets won the game’s $10,000 third prize. Equally important is the fact that 51 of those tickets are truly worth $30,000 because they involve the optional Megaplier.
Finally, the winner of the Mega Millions jackpot will be able to claim merely $878 million in cash, once all the taxes kick in. One of our distinguished team members, an expert in gambling called simply The Wizzard of Odds, has even constructed a calculator to help you see the expected value of each lottery bonanza.
If you want to learn more about it, make sure to pay him a visit, and see how he breaks the entire story into small bits before you rush to your local store to get yourself a ‘winning’ ticket...
What do you think about this win? Post a comment below!
Source:
“Record Mega Millions Jackpot Won in South Carolina”, megamillions.com, October 24, 2018.