One lucky ticket in California won almost $1 million playing Mega Millions, as the overall jackpot continues to rise!
The winning ticket
The winning California Lottery ticket was for the Tuesday, May 21 Mega Millions drawing. The ticket matched the five white ball winning numbers in the drawing but not the Mega Ball, according to the California Lottery. After matching the five numbers, the ticket won $943,692, narrowly missing out on the $421 million jackpot.
The winning numbers for the May 21 drawing were 2, 5, 8, 28, and 69, and the Mega Ball was 14. The winning ticket was purchased at Asia Gift, a gift and bookstore located at 761 W. Garvey Ave. in Monterey Park, which is about a 10 mile drive east of downtown Los Angeles.
Payouts in California
You may be wondering where the $943,692 amount comes from, right? For most Mega Millions players, matching the five white balls without the Mega Ball would mean a $1 million payout. However, California does it a little differently.
The laws in California require any major payoffs in lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis. This means that the payouts are determined by sales and the number of winners. In essence, the payout could be less or more than $1 million, as it was in this instance.
In addition to the $943,692 winning ticket, there were more than 131,000 other Mega Millions tickets sold in California that won prizes ranging from $2 to almost $7,000 in the drawing.
Mega Millions jackpot continues to rise
While the lucky player in California almost won $1 million playing Mega Millions, there were no tickets that matched all six of the numbers to win the $421 million jackpot. There was an additional big winner, as a Mega Millions player in Louisiana won $2 million in the drawing. Because of that, the estimated jackpot for the Friday, May 24 drawing went up to $453 million.
Current Mega Millions jackpot run
Mega Millions players have been experiencing a jackpot run over the past couple of months. The last jackpot win for players came on March 26, 2024, which was also the only jackpot win of 2024 so far!
That jackpot reached $1.13 billion after 15 weeks of no one winning. The jackpot-winning ticket was sold in New Jersey, even though the lucky winner (or winners) have not come forward to claim their prize yet.
For this current jackpot run, we have had 16 drawings without anyone matching all five of the white ball numbers plus the Mega Ball number. As mentioned above, the current jackpot for the Friday, May 24, drawing is an estimated $453 million.
Mega Millions drawings are held at 11:00 p.m. ET, and ticket sales close based on the jurisdiction that you are in.
Enjoy playing the California Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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