Largest payout for a single winning ticket in game's history
Update, 12:29 pm: It was a quick pick, plus additional store info where winning ticket was sold.
By Todd Northrop
NEW YORK — A New York lottery official said a winning ticket for the Mega Millions lottery jackpot worth $319 million has been sold at a variety store in Albany, N.Y.
New York Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman said the winning jackpot ticket for Friday's drawing was sold at Coulson's News Center, located just a few blocks from the state Capitol.
Hapeman says final sales numbers raised the annuity value of the prize to $319 million, with a cash value of $202.9 million.
The jackpot is the fifth-largest in the game's history, and the ninth-largest lottery jackpot of all time for any game. The biggest jackpot was a Mega Millions jackpot worth $390 million in March 2007.
It ranks as the largest jackpot for a single winning ticket in the game's history, eclipsing the $315 million prize sold in California in November 2005.
The winning ticket was a quick pick selection — random numbers generated by the lottery terminal in the store.
Hapeman says the earliest the winner can claim the prize is Monday, because lottery offices are closed for the weekend.
The winning numbers in Friday's drawing were: 22-24-31-52-54, with a Mega Ball number of 4. The Megaplier was 4.
Employees at Coulson's News Center are bursting with pride, even though they don't know who the winner is yet. They won't get official notification from state lottery officials until Monday, when they indicate what day and time the ticket was sold, clerk Steve Gallucci said.
Gallucci, who clocks 60 hours a week, said there's a good chance he sold the winning ticket.
"I'm happy about it," he said. "I hope whoever wins it uses it in a good way. I gave away a couple of Quick Picks — who knows, maybe I gave away $300 million."
Coulson's is a shop that has been selling newspapers, magazines, sodas and snacks from their Albany's business district storefront for more than 70 years.
"We cater to the business people who work in the offices around here, so we see them every day," said Gallucci, 53, who has worked there since 1974. "They've been coming all week, playing the slips."
Hapeman says the holder of the winning jackpot ticket has the option of taking prize over 25 years or as a cash payout.
In addition to the jackpot winner, 32 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 5 from California, 1 from Colorado, 1 from Indiana, 2 from Kentucky, 1 from Maryland, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Michigan, 4 from New York, 2 from North Carolina, 4 from Ohio, 1 from Oregon, 2 from Pennsylvania, 1 from South Carolina, 3 from Texas, 2 from Washington, and 1 from West Virginia.
The 5 California winners will each be awarded prizes of $287,323 because California awards all prizes in a pari-mutuel formula, which calculates the prize amount based on the number of tickets sold and the number of winners in each prize category.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
After all the proceeds were counted, Friday's Mega Millions jackpot stood as the 9th-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States.
- Mega Millions: $390 million, Mar. 6, 2007
- Mega Millions: $380 million, Jan. 5 2011
- Powerball: $365 million, Feb. 18, 2006
- The Big Game: $363 million, May 9, 2000
- Powerball: $340 million, Oct. 19, 2005
- Mega Millions: $336 million, Aug. 28, 2009
- The Big Game: $331 million, Apr. 16, 2002
- Mega Millions: $330 million, Aug. 31, 2007
- Mega Millions: $319 million, Mar. 25, 2011
- Mega Millions: $315 million, Nov. 15, 2005
- Powerball: $314.9 million, Dec. 26, 2002
- Powerball: $314.3 million, Aug. 25, 2007
- Powerball: $295.7 million, Jul. 29, 1998
- Powerball: $295 million, Aug. 25, 2001
- Mega Millions: $294 million, Jul. 2, 2004
- Powerball: $276.3 million, Mar. 15, 2008
- Mega Millions: $275 million, Feb. 22, 2008
- Mega Millions: $270 million, Feb. 28, 2006
- Mega Millions: $266 million, May 4, 2010
- Mega Millions: $265 million, Apr. 18, 2006
- Powerball: $261.6 million, Jun. 2, 2010
- Powerball: $261.3 million, Jul. 9, 2003
- Powerball: $259.9 million, Aug. 19, 2009
- Powerball: $258.5 million, Apr. 21, 2010
- Mega Millions: $258 million, Sep. 16, 2005
Now comes the ultimate question: Was it a Quick Pick?
To the lucky winner of the Mega for 03/25/11 CONGRATULATIONS it is about time it was someone locally.
Nice to have someone in Albany win it.
Ut oh.
Rdgrnr, you better se up a defensive perimeter and out out the claymores.
New York always take my money!!!
Maybe i can win tonights powerball!!!
i'm sure it was ....it always is a QP , well, 9 out of 10 times anyway ........lucky bugger lol
Cha Ching.....quite a payday. Wish it had been me. But I do wish the big winner health and happiness with their fortune.
whoever congratulations.......................
hopeful its just 1 winner and not some lottery group,
with 35% max fed rate and almust 9% added rate of new york state tax , if they take the cash, atfer Max taxes of 43.97% overall its: 113,740,900 cash wired to their bank account
makes the 203 Cash million jackpot look not much, atfer the evil govt gets their greedy hands on their "fair" share, its not fair, its high way robbery
biggest single cash payout ever atfer taxes i would say,
also state of new york, just scored over 18 million in mm money
bloody s even got a few cents form ever player, f you new york , that should be the winners money :P
what shall this lucky beep spend it on, who knows, but it should keep them busy buying things LOL
DO NOT LET MATH FOOL YOU.Someone always win, that is a fact.TOO BAD IT WASN'T YOU OR ME.I AM FEELING SO CRAZY AFTER LOSING SO MUCH.
ONE SINGLE LINE QUICK PICK WON THE WHOLE THING.It does not matter how much the person or group played.They had THE SINGLE LINE QUICK PICK THAT WON IT ALL.
I BET THAT YOU HAVE SOME JOKE ABOUT THIS.
I think me (
) and you (
) should be a team and share the Jackpot if you win.
Whataya think?
Not really a fan of lottery clubs, too many cooks spoil the stew. Hope it was a individual who won it. Congrats to the winner(s) though!
Won $14 last night..........Let's go Powerball!!
Being in Albany, maybe it's a pool with Governor Cuomo and a bunch of his rich, fat-cat friends.
I got a feeling the filthy-rich Senator Schumer and the multi-millionaire Clintons and the billionaire Mayor Bloomberg are in on it too.
Just a hunch.
Power to the People!
yeah, yeah....congrads to the winner ...blah blah blah....i'm S I C K of new york winning -!!!
Tell me all you want about how "theres more players there"....BOO-LONY!!!
Somethings very suspicious here...
...not buying lotto anymore unless i find myself in NY to buy the ticket.
I'm now in detox, as I am always after the hype and excitement of the run up to a huge jackpot. However, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!! to whomever the winner is. May they enjoy every ounce of goodwill, wisdom, peace and luxury that I dreamed for me and my family.
yeah I told my wife I was retiring from playing Mega after this run, she told me I can't. I know if I did stop playin, the same numbers I play would probably come up next week LOL
I must say it does make you think about it. I brought my ticket at 10:43 last night won $24.00 with the megaplier. Had one numbers and gold ball on two tickets. Oh! well now I can play the PB tonite.
Good luck everybody and CONGRAT!!!!!!!!!! to New York single winner.
The news story was updated with additional info on the winning ticket and the store where it was purchased.
It was a quick pick.
I had a feeling someone from New York Would win this Jackpot.Unfortunately it wasn't me as I only matched numbers 52 and 54.
This mega millions is rigged!there is no odds on machines in New York that keep spitting out winning tickets, the rest of the country add to the pot and sit back as NY takes everybody money!!!
NY got to be the luckiest place on earth!!!
The next Mega Millions jackpot ticket will be sold in NY!!
A Quick Pick won the 319 million then.
Thanks Todd.
And I ain't sayin' nothin' to nobody about nothin'.
Call me Mr Switzerland, I'm neutral on any related issues.
Far be it from me to bring up the claimed stupidity of playing quick picks.
And I would never say: "I wonder if he wishes he had played his own intelligent picks instead?"
Uh-uh, no way. I'm not getting involved in any of the back and forth on that. So don't anybody try to drag me into it.
I'm not getting involved.
Congratulations to the winner, however i live in the south and we don't have a chance in winning the mega millions. After viewing their winning gallery they have had 18 jackpot winners in NY and MI from 2005 up until now. I live in NC and as you can see their has only been one winner here so I'm starting to feel like the lottery is rigg.
That is so true the mega millions jackpot goes off there so frequently.
There have been 24 Mega Millions jackpots won by New York and 2 powerball jackpots won by NY!!! May the odds be with you!!!
as a fellow new yorken and one to believe in conspiracy theories, i can tell you that i honesty DO NOT BELIEVE that the lottery is rigged in any shape or form - i do, however, contend that because new yorkers are more than likely to be wealthier than the rest of the country [1 bedroom apts. start in the $1million mark] they are apt to play HUNDREDS of dollars on a single game - in my office alone, one gent spent $650, another $300, another $809 and a group put in a cool $2,350 .. so, when individuals are spending at LEAST $100 [i played $200] each drawing, i do believe the machine and stats and random calculators would favor and spill out for that area .. or at least that's what i tell myself ... anyway, i play ONLY when usamega alerts me that it's over $100million .. and mama plays big .. think of it as an investment plan .. one day, it'll be your turn to collect, right now, we're feeding someone else's troughs
Very well put!!!
i agree cause i plan on winning the big one next time.. lol... but i think most of the terminals are in ny... there one almost on every corner... has to be close to 500,000 machines in (bx) nyc.. for some reason my area alone to my knowledge has had at least 6 2nd place qp winners...
You said you do not believe the lottery is rigged and then you said it favored that area due to all the big spenders and amount of tickets being sold. Uhm, that would be rigged.
Just saying.........
You know something is up when you know what state won before reading what state won. The game is fishy.