Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $450 million sold in Florida

Jan 6, 2018, 10:51 am (12 comments)

Mega Millions

By Todd Northrop

After 23 straight drawings with no grand prize winner, one winning ticket was sold for the $450 million Mega Millions jackpot in Friday night's drawing.

The winning numbers were 28, 30, 39, 59, and 70, with Mega Ball number 10. The Megaplier was 3.

The winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven, located at 7131 Ridge Road in Port Richey, Florida.

The Florida Mega Millions jackpot winner has 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim the prize. However, to elect the one-time, lump-sum cash payment option (in the amount of $281.2 million,) the claim must be filed within 60 days after the winning draw date.

In addition to the lucky jackpot winner, 8 tickets matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from California, 1 from Massachusetts, 2 from Oklahoma, 1 from Tennessee, 2 from Texas, and 1 from Virginia.

Two of the second prize winners — one the the tickets sold in Oklahoma and one of the tickets sold in Texas — purchased their tickets with the Megaplier option for an extra $1, which triples their prizes to $3 million because the Megaplier drawn Friday night was 3.

The California second-prize winner will take home a $1,860,934 prize, in this case benefiting from the state's pari-mutuel prize laws and the fact that there were no other second-prize winners in the state to split the prize with.

The Megaplier option is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered with the Megaplier is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts.

Another 65 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. Of those tickets, 9 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $30,000, and 9 were sold in California, where the prize was worth $11,987 this drawing.

Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.

The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.

If you're not one of the lucky winners, fear not. There's a chance to land an even bigger payday with the $570 million Powerball jackpot. The next drawing for that game will be tonight at 11 p.m. ET.

Powerball and Mega Millions are the largest lottery games in the country, but their jackpots don't usually grow to such staggering heights at the same time.

But it could become a more common phenomenon. The rules for both games were recently tweaked — Powerball in 2015 and Mega Millions in October 2017 — to give the games longer odds and thus let the jackpots grow larger.

Smaller chances of snagging the jackpots means the prize pools have a chance to grow bigger before a winning ticket is sold. Meanwhile, the games can attract more players by brandishing their eye-popping prizes.

Powerball grabbed headlines a couple years ago when its grand prize grew to nearly $1.6 billion. It marked the largest lottery prize in history. Three winning ticket holders eventually claimed the prize in a January 2016 drawing.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

I went on the Florida Lottery website and when I went down through the respective winning numbers section I noticed that they do not post the cash value of the respective drawing. I could have missed that, just wondering where it is located.

Congrats to the winner(s) !!!!!

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960

Wow!! Congratulations to the Winners in this lovely little town! Good luck and enjoy! I'm sure there are plenty of great golf courses in this area too.

See the source image
psykomo's avatarpsykomo

CONGRAT'$ PORT RICHEY, FLORIDA,1/5/2018 HAPPY NEW YEAR $450 BIG WON'$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and "YOU" WON'T PAY STATE TAXE$ Hurray!

  YOU GOT IT MADE FOR 2018 Party     

Slick Nick's avatarSlick Nick

This definitely was a heavy game with a lot of activity, that's for sure! And there were a handful of second and third place winners who have shared the good fortune. The "Megaplier" definitely proved its worth also. Smash  Congratulations to any and all winners. Now we have the "Powerball" to wait and watch for. Good luck to everyone!

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960
  •  P
    • Port Richey, FL most expensive listing is this 4bd/5bth, 4515 sq ft house on the water at $1.5M. It's very affordable for the new Mega Millionaires!!
4631 Harborpointe Dr, Port Richey, FL 34668
4631 Harborpointe Dr, Port Richey, FL 34668
zephbe's avatarzephbe

Congrats to the winner--enjoy Smile

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

$ Nice Win $

BuyLow's avatarBuyLow

Quote: Originally posted by golfer1960 on Jan 6, 2018

Wow!! Congratulations to the Winners in this lovely little town! Good luck and enjoy! I'm sure there are plenty of great golf courses in this area too.

See the source image

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by golfer1960 on Jan 6, 2018

Wow!! Congratulations to the Winners in this lovely little town! Good luck and enjoy! I'm sure there are plenty of great golf courses in this area too.

See the source image

Port Richey, FL joins the other four cities in Central Florida, "poor little Zephyrhills" and Lakeland and Plant City in Lottery History.   Zephyrhills is the city where 84-year-old Gloria C. MacKenzie won $595 million. She split it with her son but did not give an interview.  Lakeland is the City where Abraham Lee Shakespeare lived. Plant City is where he was shot, killed and buried. Abe received $13 million after taxes.  I just noticed Frostproof on the lower right corner of the map. This is where Abe purchased two quick picks. He was a truck driver's assistant delivering food to fast food restaurants. The stop there and the purchase changed Abe's life until he was murdered. May he RIP.  Many thanks to Sheriff Grady Judd and his team of Detectives. Also to the County Police Department in the County where Abe was shot and buried. Both Departments did an excellent job of prosecuting this case. 

noise-gate

Wouldn't it be something, if the winning ticket was purchased by a panhandler? Down on their luck, he/ she "sacrificed" two dollars & hit It? Nevertheless, the MM jackpot was ready to give birth. Congrats to all  the winners.

ressuccess's avatarressuccess

I hope the winner steps forward and claims the cash value option jackpot!

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by noise-gate on Jan 6, 2018

Wouldn't it be something, if the winning ticket was purchased by a panhandler? Down on their luck, he/ she "sacrificed" two dollars & hit It? Nevertheless, the MM jackpot was ready to give birth. Congrats to all  the winners.

noise-gate, Most panhandlers have personal problems with life like mental health, drug and alcohol addiction. If after winning they turned their life around by getting mental and medical help, financial help, legal assistance, etc. then I would agree with you. But in the past when the beggar wins then they share it with the other beggars. 

 I believe it is better to support organized and professional charities which work daily with the poor. Give them the glory of changing a person's life. 

 Seeing how much the government and personal donations there are now than your contributions will be a drop in the bucket. But still welcomed.

 Remember you cannot make everyone's dream come true. 

 Abraham Lee Shakespeare said, "They don't take No for an answer. They keep on asking." 

 There are professional con-artists who know how to take your "NO" and turn it around to get what they want. Plus the begging letters will be tear jerkers so you have to discard them all. You cannot tell the real McCoy's from the professional ones. Fakes v. scams. 

 If you get onto the mailing lists of charities, politicians, etc. because you gave to them then it will be difficult to get off them. When you donate to one organization than your address will be shared amongst many others.

 These are just the beginning of your rich life. 

Shocked 

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