Indiana lottery ticket wins $540 million Mega Millions jackpot

Jul 9, 2016, 8:52 am (111 comments)

Mega Millions

Updated: Added location where winning ticket was sold

By Todd Northrop

One winning ticket sold in The Hoosier State beat the odds and matched all the numbers drawn in Friday's Mega Millions drawing to win the colossal $540 million jackpot.

The numbers that single lottery ticket from Indiana matched in Friday's drawing were 8, 19, 20, 55, and 73, with Mega Ball number 5.

The winning ticket was purchased at the Speedway at 1589 N State Road 1 in Cambridge City, Indiana.

The lucky ticket holder will be the sole recipient of the third largest Mega Millions pot in history, and the seventh-biggest prize in U.S. lottery history, surpassing an August 2013 Powerball prize of $448.4 million, shared by a ticket from Minnesota and two tickets from New Jersey.

This is by far the largest lottery prize won in the state of Indiana. The previous record in the state was a $314.3 million Powerball jackpot won on Aug. 25, 2007, claimed by a retired auto worker and his 2 children.

This is the third top-10 jackpot so far in 2016. In January, there were three winning tickets for a $1.58 billion Powerball jackpot — by far the largest in history — and a group of eight players in New Jersey won a $429.6 million Powerball jackpot in May.

But perhaps even more important is the lump-sum cash option of $380 million, since most big winners claim the up-front cash rather than the annuity amount paid in 30 annual installments.

It's the fifth-largest cash value in U.S. lottery history, and the second-largest Mega Millions cash value ever awarded.  If the winner chooses the cash payout option, it will be the largest cash payout to a single lottery ticket in history, surpassing the $370.9 million cash payout to Florida Powerball winner Gloria MacKenzie in May of 2013.

Besides Friday night's Mega Millions jackpot winner another 10 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Colorado, 1 from Connecticut, 1 from Florida, 1 from Kansas, 1 from Louisiana, 1 from Maryland, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Missouri, 1 from New Jersey, and 1 from Oklahoma.

Three of the second-prize winners — the tickets sold in Colorado, Florida, and Kansas — purchased their tickets with the Megaplier option for an extra $1 per play and doubled their prize to $2 million, because the Megaplier number drawn was 2.

The Megaplier option is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered with the Megaplier is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.

Another 200 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball to win a $5,000 prize. Of those tickets, 22 were purchased with the Megaplier option, increasing the prize to $10,000, and 24 were sold in California, where the prize is worth $6,264 this drawing.

The $540 million jackpot started building from its $15 million starting point on March 11. The jackpot run-up of a record 35 drawings produced more than 79.6 million winning tickets across all prize levels, including the one jackpot winner and 67 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more.

Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $1 each.

The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Congratulations to the Happy WinnersParty

Groppo's avatarGroppo

Quote: Originally posted by helpmewin on Jul 9, 2016

Congratulations to the Happy WinnersParty

.

Honestly, I could cry.
But I realize that eventually, it had to be somebody.

Mr. Groppo

 

 

 

 

(There, there Groppochini, there will be other drawings.)

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

Congratulations to the winner/winners.

Albeone

If one individual claims this ticket and elects the cash option, wouldn't this be the largest lump sum payment for a single claim?

quicksloth35

Congrats to the winner(s)! Thanks for now making this a fantastic time to win PB!

SoleWinner21

Quote: Originally posted by Albeone on Jul 9, 2016

If one individual claims this ticket and elects the cash option, wouldn't this be the largest lump sum payment for a single claim?

Gloria Mackenzie- $ 590 million

Think's avatarThink

Well, if it rolls like this again then the next stop is November!

Looks like this time people started kicking in at around $400,000,000.

Note to conspiracy theorists there wasn't even a second prize in Michigan.

As for me I missed third prize (8,20,53,72,75  5) and got 10 bux.

Congrats to the winner and I hope they are an LP member.

jacintasc

I can't wait  for my turn in about 3 or 4 years from now when the jackpot will be huge again. What?

Either MM will have to change its matrix or it will no longer be a game in the future. Poor sales, poor sales, poor sales.

Albeone

Quote: Originally posted by SoleWinner21 on Jul 9, 2016

Gloria Mackenzie- $ 590 million

 Looked her info up, that's the jackpot amount, the cash value was 370.9..

jjtheprince

Very tempted to drive to Indiana now and buy Powerball tickets.  Indiana is now "Can't lose"

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

Looking at gross this is largest single-ticket cash.

However, technically Gloria would still come out on top in real $.

Florida has no state tax on lotto

Indiana has 3.4% tax, reducing prize to about $367.08 million before Federal

pickone4me's avatarpickone4me

I checked the winners page on both MM & PB, doesn't appear to be much jack pot wins for indiana, so on that note I guess congrats are in order.  I will revoke my congrats if the winner is from an often winning state.

Saylorgirl's avatarSaylorgirl

I have not even checked my tickets yet!!

Piaceri

Congrats to the SINGLE TICKET winner!!!!! 

Dance

Hyper

Banana

Hurray!

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