Defying 1 in 290.5 million odds, a Georgia-based lottery player walked away from the game last week with winnings totalling $980 million, Mega Millions announced.
The player selected the numbers 1, 8, 11, 12, 57, and the number 7 gold Mega Ball.
A winner can choose an annuity or the cash option, a one-time payment of $452.2 million before taxes. However, if there are multiple jackpot winners, the prize is shared between them.
Earlier this year, there were four Mega Millions jackpot winners, but Friday’s drawing was the 40th since the last win in June, officials said.
Mega Millions winners
In September, two Missouri and Texas-based players won a nearly $1.8 billion jackpot, one of the largest in the US.
While the Georgia winner’s Mega Millions jackpot winnings aren’t among the top 10 US lottery jackpots, it is the eighth-largest for Mega Millions since the game began in 2002.
“$983 million is the largest jackpot that’s been won since the Mega Millions game changed back in April,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. “Congratulations to our big winner from Georgia and to all our players who are winning more than ever with this new version of the game.”
In the same game the Georgia winner claimed the jackpot, a total of 347 third-tier prizes of $20,000 to $100,000 were won in 40 different jurisdictions across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.