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Mega Millions lottery numbers drawn Mega Millions lottery: winning tickets sold in California and Georgia
(about 3 hours later)
The numbers have been drawn for the $636m Mega Millions lottery – the second-largest jackpot in US history. Two winning tickets were sold in California and Georgia for the $636m (£390m) Mega Millions jackpot, which was the second largest prize in US lottery history, lottery officials said.
The winning numbers were: 8, 14, 17, 20, 39, and Mega Ball 7. The cash option if the full prize is claimed immediately rather than in deferred payments is estimated at $341m, before taxes. One ticket was sold in San Jose, California, said the California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso. Mega Millions' lead director Paula Otto said she did not yet know in which city in Georgia the other had been sold.
The only bigger jackpot was a $656m Mega Millions prize in March 2012. Otto, who is also the Virginia Lottery's executive director, said $336m in tickets were sold for Tuesday's draw, for which they had projected $319m. "Sales were a little better than we'd anticipated," Otto said. "It was a fun run, it was our first holiday run for either of the big jackpot games."
There was no immediate word about who won but a winning ticket was bought at a retail location on Tully Road in San Jose, California, according to Alex Traverso, a lottery official, who said there may be more than one winner. She said that because of the higher sales the jackpot may be around $645m. The final jackpot would be available by midday on Wednesday, she said.
Some reports said two tickets matched the six numbers: one sold at Jennifer's Gifts in San Jose and the other in Georgia. The jackpot started its ascent on 4 October, and 22 draws came and went without a winner. Otto said $1bn worth of tickets were sold during the run, earning the places that offer the Mega Millions lottery – 43 states, the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands – a total of $300 million.
Mega Millions altered its rules in October to help increase jackpots by lowering the odds of winning the top prize. Chances of winning the jackpot changed to about one in 259m. It used to be about one in 176m, nearly the same odds of winning Powerball. The winning numbers in Tuesday night's draw were: 8, 14, 17, 20, 39; Mega Ball: 7. The jackpot resets to $15m for the next draw, on Friday night.
Mega Millions is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands. The San Jose ticket was sold at Jennifer's Gift Shop, Traverso said. "For us, the main thing we'd like to get across is the level of excitement we saw all across California," he said. "At one point, we were selling about 25,000 tickets per minute. It's been an amazing experience. It's unbelievable."
The winners could choose to be paid over time or in a cash lump sum, Otto said. Based on the $636m figure, the winners would receive $318m each over time or $170m each in cash.
Mega Millions changed its rules in October to help increase the jackpots by lowering the odds of winning the top prize. That means the chances of winning the jackpot are now about 1 in 259 million. It used to be about 1 in 176 million, nearly the same odds of winning a jackpot in Powerball, the other major US multi-state lottery.
But that has not stopped aspiring multimillionaires from playing the game.
"Oh, I think there's absolutely no way I am going to win this lottery," said Tanya Joosten, 39, an educator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who bought several tickets on Tuesday. "But it's hard for such a small amount of money to not take the chance."
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