"It still doesn't feel real."
By Kate Northrop
Someone in New York won the state's largest Mega Millions jackpot, setting the new record at $476 million. On Monday, he stepped forward to claim the prize.
Johnnie Taylor, 71, of Howard Beach, was the sole winner of the Mega Millions jackpot from the drawing on April 14, 2023.
It is the largest Mega Millions prize won in New York since the game launched in the state in 2002. The previous record was a $437 million jackpot won by a ticket sold in Huntington in 2019.
After electing to take the cash option of the prize, Taylor received a lump sum payment of $157,288,402 after state and federal tax withholdings.
"It still doesn't feel real," he told the New York Lottery.
His wife didn't think so either — she refused to believe her husband when he told her that he knew who won the jackpot that night. He proceeded to tell her that he was actually the winner, but she was still skeptical.
It didn't set in until he went online to prove that the winning numbers matched the ones on his ticket: 23, 27, 41, 48, and 51, with Mega Ball 22.
Taylor's plans for the winnings might help solidify their new reality. Having recently retired from his job as a building handyman in Manhattan, he wants to travel, buy a new home, replace his 2012 Prius with a newer model hybrid vehicle, and donate to his local church.
He is a frequent customer at Liberty Beer and Convenience on Liberty Avenue in Queens, which is situated near his local subway station. He'll often buy Quick Picks for Mega Millions and Powerball at the retailer and will add the multiplier option when jackpots increase to $100 million or higher.
The retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.
"The New York Lottery congratulates Mr. Taylor on winning this historic jackpot, the sales for which brought millions of dollars to New York's public schools and lottery retailers across the state," New York State Gaming Commission Chairman Brian O'Dwyer said in a press release.
Prior to the win, the Mega Millions jackpot cycle saw 21 rollovers that generated over $21 million for New York education, $4.1 million in retailer commissions, and $10.4 million in non-jackpot prizes for players in the state, according to the Lottery.
Prize amounts and odds for Mega Millions can be viewed on Lottery Post's Prizes and Odds page.
Currently, the Mega Millions jackpot stands at $240 million for the next drawing on Fri., June 9, 2023 at 11:00 pm EST. Tickets cost $2 each, and players generally have until 10:00 pm EST to purchase tickets, although ticket cutoff times vary by state.
" It still doesn't feel real." Johnnie's got that right. Enjoy your wealth Big guy!
$3.00 and a Dream Come True!
Congrats JT !!! I truly hope you have many years of enjoyment with your newly acquired wealth.....
I was going to offer a friendly piece of advice, "don't head to the big city and walk around without proper bodyguards,now that everyone know who you are and how much you are worth". BUT, you are already too close. There are unscrupulous folks walking about, or so I see on the news....
* Wow, the garden gnomes are upset because l congratulated Johnnie? Who would have thought!
His multiplier option play makes no sense. If you have a fixed amount to spend on the lotto, it makes sense to play without a multiplier when the jackpot gets above a certain amount (somewhere in the $200-300 million range as I recall).
Greek god 's of wealth
Fortes Fortuna juviat :-)
I have a request: Would you guys make a section on your website that lists all the unclaimed JPs and maybe even the ones that have been claimed and related information about them. I found myself saying "Whaaa?" when this person claimed this JP, April 14th seems like a long time ago, and I wondered what other PB and MM JPs have yet to be claimed. I do like the way Florida does this:
https://www.flalottery.com/exptkt/pb-jackpotRetailer.pdf
But this is your website, and I am just making a request. If this feature is already here, feel free to point it out, Thank you.
Some people play the multiplier because if they don't win the jackpot but win any of the smaller prizes it will be multiplied. The multiplier is strictly for the smaller prizes, which is a chance to multiple the prize up to 5X. It has nothing to do with the jackpot prize
Exactly. It doesn't matter how high the jackpot is, just be consistent in your purchases is what I normally recommend.
Congrats Johnnie.
Some people buy the multiplier option and buy five identical lines on their ticket. I do that.
The odds in PowerBall to win a second place prize of 2 million dollars by matching 5 numbers (if you bought the PowerPlay multiplier) are 11,688,053 to 1. But because I have 5 identical lines on my ticket I'd win 2 million per line, or a total of 10 million dollars.
To win 10 million bucks with 11 million to odds would make for a very nice payday. G5
That's all true, but note that I said IF you have a fixed AMOUNT to spend on the lotto (and I should have added for clarity, you want to maximize your EXPECTED return, which includes winning the jackpot), then it makes sense to buy more $2 plays than a less number of $3 plays, because the jackpot gets so high that it contributes more to the expected return than the non-jackpot wins. This can be proved mathematically.
I understand that since the odds are so low to win the jackpot, you might want to allocate your fixed amount to the more expensive $3 plays because any wins that you do have will most likely not be the jackpot. And ignoring the jackpot, it makes sense to play $3 for the smaller wins, because for 50% more cost per ticket, you get more than a 50% increase in expected returns for the non-jackpot wins.
The Lottos love this subtlety because this confusion maximizes their profits, assuming a fixed number of PLAYS (not total amount) per draw. If they can get the lotto players to spend more money per play on such a loser game like Mega Millions (odds of losing are ~23 in 24 per play) , then they maximize their profits. This assumes the same number of tickets are bought.
Keep in mind, that when the Lotto maximizes their profits, that maximizes all player total LOSS.
In terms of expected return, the optimal strategy is to not play Mega Millions at all.
Whoa...thats ALOT of tax.