One lottery ticket sold in New Jersey wins $521 million Mega Millions jackpot

Mar 31, 2018, 9:34 am (97 comments)

Mega Millions

Update: Quotes and information from store workers where the winning ticket was sold

By Todd Northrop

It appears someone in the Garden State will be having a very happy Easter or Passover, as Friday night's Mega Millions drawing produced a single jackpot-winning ticket sold in New Jersey.

The ticket matched all six numbers drawn — 11, 28, 31, 46, and 59, with Mega Ball number 1. The Megaplier was 3.

The winning ticket was sold at the Riverdale Lukoil South, located at 105 Route 23 in Riverdale.

The winner will receive an estimated $521 million, which is the 4th-largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions, and the 10th-largest jackpot ever in US lottery history.

Friday's jackpot was the 18th won during the month of March in the game's 16-year history, and comes six years to the day after a then-record $656 million jackpot was won. (See World's biggest lottery jackpot won by three tickets, Lottery Post, Mar. 31, 2012.)

"We are thrilled that the winning ticket was sold in Morris County," said New Jersey Lottery Acting Executive Director John M. White. "I'm happy to congratulate... the retailer that sold this winning ticket."

"We encourage the winner to sign the back of the ticket, make a copy of both sides and put it in a safe place, and contact Lottery Headquarters at 609-599-5875 to arrange to file a claim for this 'MEGA' jackpot prize," White added.

The winner has one year from the date of the drawing to file a claim.

"It's exciting to think that their lives have been changed," said Nancy Levan, a cashier at the Lukoil where the winning ticket was sold, of the winner.

Levan and her manager, Nash Riad, happily spoke to a swarm of reporters in between transactions with customers on a busy afternoon.

They don't know who the winning ticket was sold to. And they aren't sure how much the store looks to gain from selling the winning ticket.

Riad said he received a call from the lottery office in the early morning.

"They check the address and they told me, 'do you know that you are the store who sold the winning ticket for one person? Be ready. All news will be here.'"

Levan said it was exciting to think that she could've been the one that sold the winning ticket.

"We have a lot of blue collar workers that come in in the mornings so we're hoping it was someone that really needed it," she said. "It would be great for them."

Levan said one of her co-workers called her at home to break the news that one of them sold the winning ticket.

"Just knowing that it's one of our customers. That it stayed in New Jersey, stayed local, is an awesome thing," she said.

Levan said the biggest previous winning at the gas station was a $200,000 scratch-off lottery ticket off a $5 purchase in 2015.

In addition to the lucky jackpot winner, 2 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Ohio and 1 from Texas.

Another 59 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. Of those tickets, 7 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $30,000, and 6 were sold in California, where the prize was worth $16,280 this drawing.

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.

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.

With the jackpot have been won last night, the Mega Millions jackpot resets to its starting value of $40 million for the next drawing on Tuesday.

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

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Toronto

What's the point of playing if someone else is going to win it

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Congrats to the person that purchased the single lucky ticket up in NJ !!! Great win Thumbs Up

The winner of the 2nd place prize in Texas purchased their ticket at a 7-11 on Bryant St. in Dallas. Yes, it was a QP and it was not me. Star

We did have 6 tickets purchased that had 4/5 numbers with the Mega Ball and 1 of those had the multiplier

Texas Lotto Jackpot tonight:    $19.75 Million/$13.3 Million Cash

 

Good luck to all of us

Think's avatarThink

Really?  Only 2 second prize winners on a top 10 Jackpot???

Well, next stop for the jackpot June 19 - June 26th.

This was my last play on Mega until they change it again and then I will evaluate the game again and see if I will play. 

They probably wont change it for 3 1/2 years so that's about  14 more jackpots.

kennedygrandma's avatarkennedygrandma

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Quote: Originally posted by kennedygrandma on Mar 31, 2018

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

MADDOG10's avatarMADDOG10

I know the Station well. I used to Live in Riverdale, before moving to Florida. 

I wish whomever well on their new found wealth.

paymentplan-man

Quote: Originally posted by Think on Mar 31, 2018

Really?  Only 2 second prize winners on a top 10 Jackpot???

Well, next stop for the jackpot June 19 - June 26th.

This was my last play on Mega until they change it again and then I will evaluate the game again and see if I will play. 

They probably wont change it for 3 1/2 years so that's about  14 more jackpots.

Agreed once my subscription for the MM ends im done playing it for a while. Just sticking to PW 400M and higher so i can limit my losses. God bless all of you and congrats to all who won something

gy65

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

cps10's avatarcps10

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

I found this to be odd as well. Wouldn't the program automatically find where the ticket was found? I know that there are several hundred million combinations and I'm sure most of them were played last night, but even our databases at work that deal with trillions of data points can find something almost instantaneously.

cps10's avatarcps10

"It appears someone in the Garden State will be having a very happy Easter or Passover, as Friday night's Mega Millions drawing produced a single jackpot-winning ticket sold in New Jersey."

 

- or neither LOL

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by kennedygrandma on Mar 31, 2018

The same few states over and over again anyone else notice that.

I Agree! 100% kennedygrandma   Tennessee hasn't had a jackpot winner since the Lottery began, if I'm correct.

paymentplan-man

Quote: Originally posted by ekem6078 on Mar 31, 2018

I Agree! 100% kennedygrandma   Tennessee hasn't had a jackpot winner since the Lottery began, if I'm correct.

Typically the states that win seem to be the ones that play the most collectively which makes alot of sense. Granted this isn't a guarantee since its a game of chance but on average a state that puts in more combinations will in turn yield a more positive outcome when it come to amount of winners. Which is why im taking a lottery break if you will especially from the MM.

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 31, 2018

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

Looks like ILL.  NY.  CA.  WA  &  TX are the States to be to winning it.

Redd55

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

It was New Jersey -- undoubtedly someone got their legs broken.   Jester Laugh

JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 31, 2018

Winning States of MM jackpot over the last 3 years since March 30th, 2015:

NJ - FL - MI/RI - NY - IL - CA - TX - CA - GA - TX - IL - VA/GA - WA - IN - WA - NY - OH - NY - MO - PA - IL

Yep, losers in MN and my home state WI.

 

- Participating MM States -

Jackpot Winners Jackpot Losers
California Arizona
Florida Arkansas
Georgia Colorado
Illinois Connecticut
Indiana Delaware
Michigan Idaho
Montana Iowa
New Jersey Kansas
New York Kentucky
Ohio Louisiana
Pennsylvania Maine
Rhode Island Maryland
Texas Massachusetts
Virginia Minnesota
Washington Missouri
· Nebraska
· New Hampshire
· New Mexico
· North Carolina
· North Dakota
· Oklahoma
· Oregon
· South Carolina
· South Dakota
· Tennessee
· Vermont
· Washington, D.C.
· West Virginia
· Wisconsin
· Wyoming
JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

Quote: Originally posted by MADDOG10 on Mar 31, 2018

I know the Station well. I used to Live in Riverdale, before moving to Florida. 

I wish whomever well on their new found wealth.

May have stopped there when I was out there for a 6 week training class in Paramus years ago.

Was staying at the Residence Inn in Parsippany.

ekem6078's avatarekem6078

Quote: Originally posted by paymentplan-man on Mar 31, 2018

Typically the states that win seem to be the ones that play the most collectively which makes alot of sense. Granted this isn't a guarantee since its a game of chance but on average a state that puts in more combinations will in turn yield a more positive outcome when it come to amount of winners. Which is why im taking a lottery break if you will especially from the MM.

I agree.  Naturally the States with the biggest population of people and people playing the game has the best chances of winning it all.  So you are right there.  But the game being random won,  Naw. I don't believe that (jmo)   The lottery folks knows how many tickets has been sold to keep up with the jackpot right.  So now that everyone has ran there tickets through the computer, now the computer has a print out of all the numbers that is being played for the day, right.  Now lets say, their are 1,000000 people with the same identical numbers. Do you think the Lottery will drop their numbers?  I don't think so, if they did it would break the lottery and they wouldn't be able to pay it all out.  So what I'm saying is,  if to many people is riding the same numbers, those number will never fall.  Same applies to pick 4 and pick 3.   You will know when a number is consider slow or cold, that's a number that is being play by to many people and the lottery will not let that number drop.  If the number is fast or hot, that's a number that has a very few people playing and they will let it be drawn a lot.  This just makes sense.

gy65

Quote: Originally posted by Redd55 on Mar 31, 2018

It was New Jersey -- undoubtedly someone got their legs broken.   Jester Laugh

Perhaps the NJ Lottery Website will offer some explanation, such as . . .

 

jjtheprince14

LP is finally catching on that only certain states can win.

New Jersey needs their own lottery and it needs to be way harder than MM or PB.

Ban them from MM and PB and give them a 11+1 matrix game with numbers that go from 1-999,999.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Quote: Originally posted by ekem6078 on Mar 31, 2018

Looks like ILL.  NY.  CA.  WA  &  TX are the States to be to winning it.

ekem..... Illinois has had 1 winner a year for the last 3 years of 15,16,17, so if a person operates under the idea of the "same state(s) win over and over", that state would probably be the best choice. California did have 2 winners in 2017, but had a drought all the way back to 8/2014. New York had a winner in Sept of 17 and went over a year and a half back to JAN 2016 before its previous win. Washington shows a winner in July of 2016 & a Seattle,WA winner in March of 2016, no winners in 2015 or 2014 and nothing since July/2016. My wonderful state of Texas did have 2 winners in a short period of time (*3/17 & 11/16) nothing since then and the previous winner was back in June of 2014. *The winner in 3/2017 bought his ticket up in Arkansas, so realistically Texas has only sold 1 jackpot ticket since July 2014.

Best of luck to us all

Theluckyguy

As usual, I just missed only 6 numbers again. Hopefully it will be my turn tonight. I have waited for so long.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

Skepticalsomething don't add up for sure 

but I wish them well the lucky buzzards

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by jjtheprince14 on Mar 31, 2018

LP is finally catching on that only certain states can win.

New Jersey needs their own lottery and it needs to be way harder than MM or PB.

Ban them from MM and PB and give them a 11+1 matrix game with numbers that go from 1-999,999.

lol.  I have some news for you:  If you remove all the states that have won jackpots, Mega Millions would no longer exist, because there wouldn't be enough ticket sales to support a game with a starting jackpot of $40 million.

If you want to be able to buy tickets for such a huge jackpot in less-populated states like Idaho and Minnesota you need to put up with including highly-populated states that will win the jackpot more often.  That's just simple mathematics.

Also, New Jersey does already have its own lottery and its own NJ-only games. They do pretty well already, I play them myself all the time.

uprrman's avataruprrman

I Agree! Lurking for the winner

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by hearsetrax on Mar 31, 2018

Skepticalsomething don't add up for sure 

but I wish them well the lucky buzzards

HRSTX:

Psyko wonder'$ how that LUCKY BUZZARD knew .....ball number 59 would pop in for a lighten strike 3 TIME'$$$ ??? Dupe Alert 

Bodia77

South Dakota=0 for megamillions not even the second price lol.

last time someone won second prices of mega millions in South Dakota the price was $250,000.

I hope i will bring the next jackpot home SmileBig SmileWink

Bodia77

Quote: Originally posted by gy65 on Mar 31, 2018

Apparently took over 9 hours to determine the Mega Millions jackpot winner . . very unusual!

Very Unusual , even my state website had the price jumped to 612 million. I woke up this morning and someone won. stranger things are happening lol.

Good luck to the winner anyways.

motto

yes it has always been the big states winning... New York,New jersey,California,Florida and PA.

MsBee18

I hear Tipton has ties in New Jersey.

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