Calif. second-prize ticket wins nearly $1 million

Two tickets matched all six numbers in the Nov. 10 Mega Millions drawing worth $77 million.  One was purchased in New Jersey, and the other in California.

The New Jersey winning ticket was sold at Buyrite Supermarket, 965 Maggie Ave. in Union.  The store will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

The California top-prize winning ticket was purchased at Pak 'N Save, 2255 Gellbert Blvd. in South San Francisco.

The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing were 8, 21, 29, 34, and 37, and the Mega Ball was 15.

The largest payout so far from a Mega Millions drawing has been a $390 million jackpot shared by a New Jersey couple from Cape May County and a truck driver in Georgia in 2007.

In March, 10 co-workers from the information technology department of Chubb Insurance in White House Station, New Jersey, split a $140 million jackpot.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot won in California was a single ticket worth $315 million in the Nov. 15, 2005 drawing, won by a secretary and six laboratory workers at Kaiser Permanente.

In addition to the two jackpot-winning tickets, seven lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 1 from California, 1 from Georgia, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Massachusetts, 2 from New Jersey, and 1 from Virginia.

The California second-prize winner will actually take home a massive $906,210 prize, because California awards prizes on a pari-mutuel basis that takes into account the amount of prize money available and the number of winners.  There has been no second-prize winner in California for the four previous drawings, creating a substantial prize for the lucky player.