Two Mega Millions Players Nearly Miss the Game’s Grand Prize

Close to $50 million was up for grabs as the grand prize from Mega Millions on Friday. The popular game’s latest drawing saw the white balls 20, 21, 40, 49 and 55 drawn, along with the gold Mega ball 11. Regretfully, nobody matched all winning numbers to win the estimated $47 million jackpot.

Mega Millions Players in New Jersey, California Win a Second-Tier Prize

On the bright side, two lucky players secured a second-tier prize from Mega Millions’ most recent drawing. One fortunate lottery player from New Jersey and one lucky California player matched five winning numbers from the drawing on Friday.

Similar to other states, New Jersey applies tax deductions to lottery prizes. Matching five winning numbers granted the fortunate player a second-tier prize of $1 million.

While usually, only taxes are applied to lottery prizes, in California, there’s a difference in the way prize amounts are paid. As a result, the winning player who matched five numbers won’t be collecting a $1 million prize but would rather be entitled to $309,281.

This is because Mega Millions prize amounts in the state are pari-mutuel and will vary depending on the ticket sales as well as the number of winners. In other words, the prizes can be lower and different than the fixed prizes presented via Mega Millions’ official website. According to the California Lottery, the $300,000 Mega Millions ticket was purchased at 7-Eleven on 4010 Lake Road in West Sacramento.

Besides the two winners who matched five numbers from the latest draw, many lottery players secured lower-tier prizes. A total of 10 individuals matched four winning numbers along with the gold Mega ball number from the latest drawing. Three paid extra to secure a $30,000 Megaplier prize each, while the other seven secured the standard $10,000 prize each.

Jackpot Grows to More than $60 Million for Next Drawing

After the Mega Millions jackpot survived Friday, it has now grown further, surpassing $60 million for the upcoming drawing. With the next lottery drawing scheduled for Tuesday, September 24, the grand prize is an estimated $62 million. A cash option is also possible which in this case would be $31 million.

The Mega Millions jackpot was recently reset after a fortunate player in Texas won the whopping $800 million grand prize earlier this month. This marked the seventh largest jackpot from the popular lottery game. Still, it was only the third jackpot win for this year so far.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 302,575,350 to 1. On the other hand, the overall odds of winning a prize from the lottery game are 1 in 24.