Someone’s life just changed, in about a billion different ways.
A Maine resident purchased the winning ticket ahead of Friday’s $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawing, the second-biggest in the game’s history, lottery officials said.
The lottery winner matched all six numbers in the game, which hasn’t crowned a jackpot winner since Oct. 14. The numbers were 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and Mega Ball 14.
It was a lucky Friday the 13th for a player who beat the long odds: 1 in 302.6 million.
The winner and the place where the ticket was sold have not been publicly identified. Some state lottery officials do not identify winners out of concerns for their privacy and security.
The jackpot is a first for Maine, according to lottery officials.
The victory ends a streak of 26 draws. Without a winner earlier this week, Friday’s jackpot grew to surpass the $1.35 billion jackpot won in July 2022. It is still dwarfed by the $1.53 billion won in October 2018.
The largest lottery jackpot ever paid out in the US was the result of a Powerball drawing in November with a cash value of $2.04 billion.
Friday’s winner can choose between accepting 30 annuity payments worth $1.35 billion or a one-time cash payment of $724.6 million.
The jackpot is now reset to a $20 million jackpot for the next drawing, on Tuesday night.