First Mega Millions second-tier prize winner in the state since the game changed
By Kate Northrop
CAMAS, Wash. — The Washington Lottery awarded the state's first multi-million second-tier Mega Millions prize of the upgraded game to one lucky player, whose "typical day" turned out to be anything but.
A Washington man won a $2 million Mega Millions prize, becoming the first lottery player in the state to win the second-tier prize since the game's revamp.
On May 12, the Washington Lottery announced that an anonymous man was going about a "typical day" when an ambiguous message on a ticket scanner made it a momentous one instead.
The player had purchased a Mega Millions ticket for the drawing on April 22, 2025 at Fern Prairie Market on Northeast 267th Avenue in Camas. It's a small convenience store where he regularly stops for lunch.
He described the day he bought the ticket as "typical" as any other to Washington Lottery officials, but it turned out to be more unprecedented than anything else when he returned to the retailer to check the results.
The Camas resident was met with a vague message from the ticket checker upon scanning the ticket: "Contact Lottery Office."
Confused, he scanned it a second time and was instead met with a new notice on the screen that informed him of a $2 million win. He went straight to his car and dialed up his wife to give her the incredible news.
The ticket for the April 22 Mega Millions drawing matched all five white ball numbers to win the $1 million prize, which was doubled to $2 million thanks to the 2X multiplier embedded in the play. The results for that night's draw were 25, 39, 49, 52, and 65, with gold Mega Ball 22.
He told Lottery staff that he and his wife have not had a big celebration yet, but the winnings will positively help them out in a big financial way. With the prize, the couple will be able to pay for their daughter's college education.
For selling the winning ticket, the retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Friday, May 23 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a $154 million jackpot.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $5 each.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
The dreaded 2X multiplier is what makes the new MM suck royally. Eliminate the 2X multiplier and while at it make the starting jackpot $100M and a lot of us will thank you. Congrats to the winner of $2M because half a loaf is better than none. Come to think of it, $2M is nothing to sneeze at.
l don't care if everyone wins 1X or 2X as long as only me wins 10X 🤠🙏
Of course the lottery will say but if we didn't force him into a multiplier by making it mandatory since we raised the price of the ticket to 5.00 this guy would have only won 1,000,000.00
I have a 3X for tonight.
He scanned his ticket to see if he won anything? He couldn't bothered to check the actual numbers? It's not hard to see that you've matched 5 out of 5.
The few times I have played am yet to get a 10X.
Maybe one day, and then the pressure will be for it to match something lol.
I got a 10 x ticket a QP nothing dint win its all a bigripoff
I feel that if I got a 10x my mind would want the ticket to match even just the mega ball.
But when one has a 2x, you don't feel the pressure at all.
Getting the 10x on your ticket already feels like winning 🤣🤣🤣
$5 Turned Into $2,000,000. I will play the lottery someday. Good Luck 🍀
Congratulations!!
P. U.! : Wut Stinx ?
I'll tell you what stinks!
2 x megaplier stinks!!
Now back to my liverwurst sandwich with .....
ShagE
Would you turn down $2 million?
First thing this morning seeing MM went up a 'measly' $10 million for Tuesday's drawing. How long do we have to wait for bigger jackpots? At this snail's pace it will be some time!
Anyway congratulations to him and his family and no state tax!
For the tenth straight draw in Megamillions players have only bought 5,000,000 tickets plus/minus. A lot of players have dropped out due to the $5.00 ticket price. At this rate it will be some time before we get a $billion jackpot and even then ticket sales will be restrained. However, that's the idea. They knew this would happen and like it that way.
By the way, remember a year or so ago when the man from France bought all the combinations in the Texas Lotto, spent $26 million and won $90 million plus?
Well, it's happening again. In my state of Montana someone (group) appears to be buying all combinations in our Montana Cash lottery. The jackpot with the Extra usually goes up by $35,000 to $40,000 per draw, it is already up over $330,000. If you see it is won tonight then someone wins $1,600,000 as of Saturday morning. At least that's how it seems.
Todd and Kate....news scroll bottom of screen on Good Morning America this morning. NJ couple finds a $1 million Mega Millions in the 'junk drawer'. Was it you guys? How I wish.
Why have sales of MM skyrocketed since it went to $5 a ticket? Are people really that stupid?
Might as well just raise ticket prices to $100 a piece, people will pay up.
jjtheprince14,
Megamillions ticket sales in units have dropped by 50% They have not skyrocketed. By the time the jackpot reached $150,000,000 under the old price, they used to sell 10,000,000 tickets by now. These days it is 5,000,000 units and has been stuck there since they raised the price from $2 to $5.
I noticed something with this New Mega Millions. If you buy ten tickets at same store or same time you get lots of 2X but if you buy Ten same tickets single at Ten different stores you get more multiplier with 10X Just a nice 👍 Tip for my fellow lottery post Players Good Luck 👍🍀
That is interesting. I've been playing it sporadically since it started. I've bought 8 tickets total and 5 were 2X and the last 3 I bought were 5X, 3X, and 4X. I was buying single tickets.
Haven't won anything yet, but hopeful.
and don't forget they also take ~ $660,000 in taxes. So no, it isn't a $2M windfall it is a $1.34M windfall. Not bad, but maybe they could drop fed lottery win taxes like over time and tips..........better for the economy IMHO.
Lottery wins should never be taxed. When you tax lottery wins, you adversely impact the level of generosity that the winner can deliver to family, friends , and the community.
You are right, at least that's what my experience has been. The big question is: How difficult is it to program that system so that when you purchase the typical 5 lines of tickets, line 1=2X, line 2= 3X, line 3= 4x, line 4= 5X and line 5=10X respectively?. If they can do that, it will help minimize the genuine complaints that people have .
Players who can only afford one or two lines twice a week for what is now a prohibitive 10.00 or 20.00 or 520.00 or 1040.00 a year wouldn't like it.
Players who are willing to buy 1-4 tickets will still be on the current system. But those that purchase the typical 5 line tickets are the ones I'm talking about. I just purchased a 5 line ticket and got 4 2X and 1 3X YIKES!!!. I'll like to see someone purchase a 5 line ticket and get 4 10X and 1 5X. That's probably highly unlikely to happen but you never know.
The probabilities of getting the various multipliers are not the same. 10X is the least likely, a 1 in 32 chance.
When I first heard/played it with the RNG multiplier my first thought was.....this may lead to RNG for Mega Millions. Hope not.
So you propose that buying 5 lines every drawing to get higher multipliers is going to satiate those players who now are spending 50.00 a week to play minimum. Not fair to those that cannot afford that much of a price tag I believe. The lottery itself laughs at your proposal. Accept the fact that most of your multipliers are going to be 2x and live with it if you play this game.