Six winning numbers were enough for a New Jersey lotto player to become a billionaire, or close to it. The correct combination of the Mega Millions lottery gave the winner on Tuesday an amount of no less than 1.1 billion dollars or 1 billion euros. It is the fifth largest jackpot in US lotto history.
A stroke of luck, that’s for sure. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302 million. The winning amount of more than 1 billion euros is a preliminary estimate, because the final calculation still has to be made based on the total number of tickets sold.
Traditionally, the winner can choose between annual payouts and receive the winnings in pieces, or he can claim the amount in one go, but then this is reduced to approximately half a billion euros. Thirteen other American Mega Millions players who got the first five numbers correct walked away with at least 1 million dollars (924,000 euros).
It is the first time in 2024 that the Mega Millions jackpot has fallen. The last time dates back to December last year, when two players from California made a profit of 364 million euros.
The largest lotto jackpot in the US ever was that of the Powerball draw of November 2022. A player from California won 2 billion dollars (1.85 billion euros).
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