Prize climbed for nine months before one player makes state history
By Kate Northrop
After the Megabucks jackpot went on an unbelievable nine-month climb and smashed previous prize records, one ticket in Massachusetts just made state lottery history and won a $29.71 million jackpot.
The exciting, record-breaking Megabucks jackpot run has finally come to a close, with one lone ticket scooping the game's historic $29.71 million prize.
It's been decades since the last time the Megabucks jackpot was ever this high. The previous record for the biggest Megabucks in the game's history was on Oct. 16, 1985 for a $21.7 million prize split by eight winning tickets. According to the Massachusetts Lottery, it was the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history at the time.
Not only is this the new record for the largest Megabucks jackpot in Massachusetts state lottery history, but it's also the record for the biggest jackpot won by a single ticket in the game. That previous record was $16.35 million, when a ticket sold in Ware won in the Sept. 10, 2022 drawing.
The drawing on Monday, Sept. 7 produced winning numbers 21, 28, 31, 34, 40, and 44, printed on a ticket sold at King Mart on Westfield Road in Holyoke.
Lottery winners in Massachusetts have one year from the draw date to claim prizes. The $29.71 million jackpot winner must claim the prize at Lottery headquarters in Dorchester.
Megabucks originally launched in November 1982 and was renamed Megabucks Doubler when it added the Doubler mechanism to the game in 2009.
On Nov. 12, 2023, the game went through extensive changes: the number matrix was lowered from 6/49 to 6/44, the Doubler was eliminated, the game reverted to the original "Megabucks" name, the ticket price was increased from $1 to $2, all non-jackpot prizes were doubled, the odds of winning were made significantly better, and a new drawing was added on Mondays.
The Megabucks jackpot was reset to its starting amount of $500,000 for the next drawing on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Megabucks drawings take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 9:00 pm EST.
All winning numbers, prize amounts, and odds can be found on Lottery Post's Massachusetts Lottery Results page.
I'd be playing that game with a jackpot that size and those odds if I lived there...
Although, that took a very long time to reach that level.
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I remember around 2000 when WA state Lotto had 2 drawings per week and the jackpot would raise $1 million per draw. I don't think jackpots really got higher than $10 million, but there was better buying power back then...
Now, we get 3 draws per week and the jackpot grows only $100k per draw and someone wins it at the $2 million - 3 million level. On occasion, it will reach 5,6,7, million, but it's pretty rare and it takes a lot longer to get there.
If only we had more options for jackpots around $10 million with much better odds than the multi-state games.
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I was buying the Megabucks in Oregon a few months ago when the jackpot was $10-$11 million... I read on Oregon's site that during the pandemic they stopped making jackpot increases based on sales and instead only raise it by 100k. The pandemic created a lot of excuses... Powerball being reset to $20 million, etc. Of course they didn't switch back after the pandemic.