Maine scored its first Mega Millions jackpot — and someone beat the ill fortune of Friday the 13th — when a ticket purchased in the state matched the winning numbers for the lottery's estimated $1.35 billion grand prize.
The ticket sold in Maine matched all six numbers in Friday night's drawing. The winning numbers were 61, 30, 45, 46, and 43, with a Megaball of 14.
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The winning ticket was sold at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon Maine, a lottery official told NBC News. The store will receive a $50,000 bonus for selling the ticket.
There were also 14 $1 million ticket winners. Four tickets were sold in New York, two in California, and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.
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The lucky winner, whose name is not yet known, overcame steep odds of 1 in 302.6 million, which led to three months of drawings without a claim on the jackpot.
“Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot," Pat McDonald, Ohio lottery director and lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement early Saturday.
The jackpot was the second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game has had a billion-dollar win. The largest Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018 was $1.53 billion claimed by a single ticket holder in South Carolina.
Friday’s prosperous drawing also marked the seventh time there was a grand prize winner on Friday the 13th, a date superstitiously considered unlucky.
To claim the full $1.35 billion, the winner would need to take the money in an annuity with annual payments over 29 years. Most jackpot recipients prefer the reduced but quicker cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $724.6 million.
The Mega Millions site says the next grand prize will be for $20 million and the cash option will be $10.7 million, indicating there was a winner of the estimated $1.35 billion prize.
Until Friday night, there had been 25 straight drawings without a jackpot winner.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
