SACRAMENTO (AP/CBS13) — One winning ticket was sold in Michigan for the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, making it the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
The winning numbers drawn Friday are: 4, 26, 42, 50, 60 and a Mega Ball of 24.
Mega millions winning numbers Mega Millions gives players a chance to win one of nine different cash prizes, including a multimillion-dollar jackpot. Prizes must be claimed within 180 days after the drawing date on which the prize was won. Odds of winning jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. Overall odds of winning are approximately 1: 24.Subject to published rules of MEGA MILLIONS and the New Jersey Lottery, the fixed prize amounts indicated here may be pari-mutuel.The JACKPOT prize will be divided equally among multiple winners.
RELATED: Damage From Kitchen Fire Temporarily Closes Beloved Turlock RestaurantThe Mega Millions top prize had been growing since Sept. 15, when a winning ticket was sold in Wisconsin.
Lottery officials say bad luck, poor odds and reduced play partially blamed on the coronavirus pandemic are the reasons why no one has won for a while. The lottery’s next estimated jackpot is $20 million.
Only two lottery prizes in the U.S. have been larger than Friday’s jackpot. Three tickets for a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot were sold in January 2016, and one winning ticket sold for a $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018.
It’s only the third time a lottery jackpot has grown so large, but much has changed since the last time such a big prize was up for grabs in 2018. The odds of winning a jackpot remained the same — incredibly small — but for a variety of reasons fewer people are playing Mega Millions or Powerball, the two lottery games offered in most of the country.
And even as the huge Mega Millions prize and a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot won Wednesday by a single ticket sold in Maryland have juiced sales for the games, Maryland lottery director Gordon Medenica noted: “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
Medenica acknowledged sales were dramatically lower before the pandemic, and they tanked even further in the spring and summer.
After a peak in October 2018, Medenica said sales of the big lottery games dropped about 50%, prompting talk among lottery officials about jackpot fatigue. Sales of Mega Millions and Powerball continued to decline after the virus hit along with other lottery games, but while scratch tickets and other instant games rebounded strongly later in the year, national game sales remained moribund.
In response to falling sales, officials updated the national games to reduce starting jackpots from $40 million to $20 million and changed rules about guaranteed minimum increases between drawings. The moves made fiscal sense but they caused jackpots to grow more slowly, further tamping down sales, as demonstrated by the record 37 draws without a winner it took to reach the current Mega Millions jackpot that’s still far less than the all-time highs.
RELATED: Deputy’s Split-Second Reaction Saves Man From 150-Foot Fall“That’s why it takes so many rolls to get up to a high jackpot level,” Medenica said.
What hasn’t changed are the odds.
By design, Mega Millions and Powerball are relatively generous in awarding small-dollar prizes and lottery officials boast there is a roughly one in 24 chance of winning something. But to generate huge jackpots, officials must be absolutely miserly about paying jackpots.
It’s hard to fathom how unlikely it is to beat odds of one in 292.2 million for Powerball or one in 302.5 million for Mega Millions.
To get a sense of your chances, Steven Bleiler, a mathematics and statistics professor at Portland State University, said people should imagine a swimming pool 40 feet (12.2 meters) wide, 120 feet (36.6 meters) long and 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep, filled to the brim with M&Ms, only one of which is green. To win, all a player must do is jump in blindfolded and wade around until finding that single green candy.
Andrew Swift, a mathematics professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, put it this way: Your chances of picking up two oysters and finding a pearl in both are about twice as likely as winning either lottery jackpot.
More from CBS Sacramento:
Mega Millions Winners By State
Still, someone always ultimately wins, and it happened again after Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing when a single ticket sold at a convenience store in the small community of Lonaconing, Maryland, hit all six numbers, and again Friday with the Mega Millions.
What comes next is unclear. Some states are banking on growth in online games, but while the 10 states that allow purchases on computers and phone apps are seeing rising sales, such purchases remain a relatively small percentage of overall revenue.
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Man, 30, Dead After Stockton Shooting, 18-Year-Old Hurt“The current roll has revived the game as it’s been designed,” Medenica said. “Whether we continue to consider making changes or not is to be seen.”
Mega Millions Winner Dies At 43
Jackpot Winners & Retailer Information PDF
Are You a Winner?All Draw game prizes must be claimed at a Florida Lottery retailer or Florida Lottery office on or before the 180th day after the winning drawing.
How to ClaimMore than $38 Billion and Counting!
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Read MoreWinning Numbers:
Friday, February 5, 2021
14-17-28-29-44-2-x4
Show Mega Millions Results
Rollover
| Prize | Mega Millions | Megaplier | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level | Winners* | Prize** | Winners* | Prize** |
| 5-of-5 + MB | 0 | $54 Million | - | - |
| 5-of-5 | 0 | $1,000,000.00 | 0 | $4,000,000.00 |
| 4-of-5 + MB | 3 | $10,000.00 | 0 | $40,000.00 |
| 4-of-5 | 22 | $500.00 | 11 | $2,000.00 |
| 3-of-5 + MB | 64 | $200.00 | 20 | $800.00 |
| 3-of-5 | 1,491 | $10.00 | 550 | $40.00 |
| 2-of-5 + MB | 1,213 | $10.00 | 397 | $40.00 |
| 1-of-5 + MB | 8,879 | $4.00 | 2,963 | $16.00 |
| 0-of-5 + MB | 20,426 | $2.00 | 6,806 | $8.00 |
*Florida Winners
**The jackpot prize will be shared among jackpot winners in all MEGA MILLIONS states. All non-jackpot prizes are set payouts. If funds are insufficient to pay set prizes, non-jackpot prizes may be paid on a pari-mutuel basis and could be lower than the amount shown.
Please note that every effort has been made to ensure that the enclosed information is accurate; however, in the event of an error, the winning numbers and prize amounts in the official records of the Florida Lottery shall be controlling.
For more information about MEGA MILLIONS, please visit the national MEGA MILLIONS website.