Mega Millions Ticket Sold in Texas Wins Whopping $800M Jackpot

After nearly 30 drawings, an incredibly lucky lottery player finally won the Mega Millions jackpot. The game’s Tuesday drawing saw a single ticket purchased in Texas match correctly all winning numbers, including white balls 1, 2, 16, 24 and 66, along with the gold Mega ball 6.

Matching the numbers on Tuesday night, the fortunate player won the mind-blowing $800 million jackpot. The cash option for the jackpot is $404.2 million, which is a far cry from the $800 million sum but undoubtedly a life-changing windfall.

The single winning ticket in Texas was purchased at Murphy USA 8848 in Sugar Land. The latest Mega Millions jackpot marked the largest prize ever won from the game for the month of September.

The Win in Texas Marks the Third Jackpot for 2024

The $800 million jackpot represented the seventh-largest Mega Millions grand prize in the history of the game. While life-changing, the jackpot is only the third one for the year.

Before the win in Texas, the last time a Mega Millions jackpot was won was in Illinois on June 4. At the time, a single ticket purchased via the Illinois Lottery’s mobile application matched all winning numbers for a sweet $552 million windfall.

The only other jackpot in 2024 so far was won in New Jersey back in March. On March 26, one ticket matched the staggering $1.128 billion jackpot at the time. While it has now been several months since that win, no player has claimed the prize yet.

Under the existing laws in Texas, lottery players who win $1 million or more can retain anonymity. This means that the identity of the lucky winner, whoever that may be, may remain a secret forever.

Latest Draw Produces More than 2.1M Winning Tickets

Prior to the drawing that produced a jackpot winner, on Friday, some 1.7 million winning Mega Millions tickets were produced. However, the continuously growing jackpot attracted more lottery players and Tuesday’s drawing saw some 2,109,736 winning tickets within the different prize tiers.

In addition to the jackpot prize, four fortunate players matched five winning numbers for a $1 million second-tier prize. As a result, a player in California, New York, Florida and Washington won $1 million each. A total of 47 players matched four winning white balls along with the gold Mega ball. Out of that total, 37 collected the standard prize of $10,000 each, while 10 lucky players paid for the Megaplier option, bringing them a $40,000 payday each.