by California Lottery Mega Millions – Earlier this week, Californians and millions of other hopeful lottery players across the country had two shots at jackpots in excess of $700 million. One of those prizes was claimed , when a Powerball ticket sold in Maryland matched all six numbers for the first time since Sept. 16. It was good for an estimated $731.1 million.
The winning numbers for Jan. 22 were 4, 26, 42, 50 and 60, and the Mega number is 24, officials in Atlanta said during the drawing at 8 p.m. Pacific.
The top prize now has an estimated cash value of $739.6 million, according to lottery officials. The lucky winner would have to pay federal taxes, although California is one of just 10 states to exempt state income tax on lottery winnings.
Friday’s top prize, the second-largest in Mega Millions history, marks just the third time an American lottery jackpot reached at least $1 billion.
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The largest payout ever, a Powerball jackpot of nearly $1.59 billion, was split between three tickets on Jan. 13, 2016, with winners in California, Florida and Tennessee. Just behind that, a Mega Millions prize of about $1.54 billion was claimed in October 2018 by one lucky winning ticket in South Carolina.
The last time the Mega Millions jackpot was won was Sept. 15, when one ticket in Wisconsin matched all six numbers for an estimated $119 million prize. Friday’s draw is the 37th since the jackpot was last paid out, according to lottery officials.
Mega Millions tickets are $2 each and the game is drawn on Tuesdays and Fridays. To play, you must select five numbers between 1 and 70, and a “Mega” number between 1 and 25. Players have a 1-in-24 chance of winning anything in a given drawing, with odds of winning the jackpot at about 1 in 302.6 million. Tickets for this game are sold in 45 states across the country, plus Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands.
