Lottery News

Who says Friday the 13th isn't lucky?

It surely is, if it rewards a $1.348 billion prize!

Friday the 13th turned out to be the luckiest day in the life of a lottery player in Maine who bought a ticket worth $1.348 billion.

After 25 rollovers without a jackpot winner, the 26th drawing by the multistate Mega Millions game produced a solo $1.348 billion winner when a ticket sold in Maine matched all the five winning numbers plus the Mega Ball number.

This gigantic jackpot amount is the fourth largest in the history of lotteries across the world and the second-largest in the history of Mega Millions. The winner of this unimaginable wealth will have the option to choose between being paid $1.348 billion in 30 annually-increasing payments over 29 years or the lump-sum cash value of $723.5 million.

According to The Lottery Lab's tax calculator analysis, after all tax deductions, the winner will either receive $754 million by the end of 29 years, or $404.1 million in cash all at once. Since Maine has a State tax rate of 7.15%. 

According to Maine State Lottery, the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Lebanon, at Hometown Gas & Grill.

Talking about Friday the 13th, this date is quite popular in the history of Mega Millions. This superstitious date has produced a lot of grand prize winners and this time it was a grand jackpot winner for Mega Millions.

Maine has been selling the Mega Millions lottery tickets since May 9, 2010. From that day onwards it is the first time the state has produced such a great jackpot.

The winning Mega Millions lottery numbers for Friday, January 13, 2023, were 30, 43, 45, 46, and 61, with Mega Ball number 14. The Megaplier number was 2.

With such a great jackpot amount at hand, it's hard to imagine the winner getting much sleep Friday night. 

Because Maine lacks privacy laws that allow a lottery winner to claim a jackpot anonymously, the public may or may not learn the winner's identity. However, Maine Lottery Director of Operations Michael Boardman was quoted in a 2018 news story as explaining that a winner in Maine could technically remain anonymous by claiming through a trust. "In Maine, a winner could file their claim in the name of a trust, and the trust would become the winner. So that's how a winner could claim their prize while remaining anonymous "[The Chairman stated].

Even if you didn't win the jackpot, the Mega Millions game still has 8 ways to win lower-tier prizes.

In addition to the jackpot winner, 14 lucky players from California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, 4 from New York, 1 from Pennsylvania, and 1 from Texas matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize.

In Friday's drawing, more than 7 million tickets won prizes across the game's nine prize tiers. Aside from the jackpot, $46.5 million in prizes were distributed that night.

The chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are one in 302.6 million.

If no one matched all of the numbers drawn, lottery officials predicted that the next jackpot would be $1.6 billion.

With the jackpot won on Friday, the next Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate is reset to $20 million.

Mega Millions is currently available for purchase in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the US Virgin Islands. Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Each ticket costs $2.

If you are wondering how to become the Mega Millions Billionaire, check our How To Play Lottery page and ace the game of chance!