Posted on: September 11, 2024, 08:00h.
Last updated on: September 11, 2024, 08:00h.
We have a winner. After 27 consecutive Mega Millions drawings without a ticket matching the five white balls and gold Mega Ball, the jackpot finally hit on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Tuesday night’s winning numbers were 1, 2, 16, 24, and 66, with the gold Mega Ball 6. The Mega Millions Consortium revealed Wednesday morning that a lucky play sold in Sugar Land, Texas, overcame the more than one in 302.57 million odds to win the rights to the jackpot.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Murphy USA gas station at 7750 Highway 90. The convenience store is roughly 20 miles southwest of Houston.
The winner can choose the full value of the advertised jackpot paid out over 30 years through an annuity or take a one-time cash sum worth $404.2 million.
Tuesday night’s $800 million jackpot ranks seventh in Mega Millions history and 13th in U.S. lottery history. With the jackpot won, the Mega Millions jackpot resets to $20 million for its next drawing on Friday, Sept. 13.
Tax-Free Jackpot
Most Mega Millions and Powerball winners choose the cash option over the 30-year annuity. However, the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate, which sets interest rates on the Treasury-backed bonds that Mega Millions and Powerball annuities are based, has made the decision a bit more complex.
If last night’s winner opts for the cash, their $404.2 million would be reduced by $149.5 million in federal taxes. That would leave the winner with an approximate payout of $254.6 million.
Along with overcoming the life-changing odds, the winner was also lucky in purchasing the Mega Millions ticket in Texas. The Lone Star State is one of only eight states that doesn’t tax lottery winnings as personal income and therefore doesn’t take a cut.
Texas being a tax-free lottery state means the lucky winner will retain millions more. In the states that do consider lottery earnings as taxable income, rates vary from 2.5% in Arizona to 10.9% in New York. On those rates, last night’s winner would have respectively been on the hook for $10.1 million and $35.6 million in additional state taxes.
Tuesday’s jackpot was the first time that the Mega Millions top prize has been won since June 4 when a ticket sold in Illinois through the lottery’s mobile app won a $552 million payout. Mega Millions’ previous jackpot win came on March 26 when a player in New Jersey won $1.128 billion — the lottery’s fifth-richest jackpot ever — though that prize has yet to be redeemed.
Tuesday Wins
Along with the jackpot, Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing produced over 2.1 million winning tickets across all other prize tiers.
The wins included four tickets matching the five drawn white balls to claim the game’s second-tier prize of $1 million. None of those tickets purchased the optional $1 Megaplier, which would have quadrupled their payouts to $4 million each.
Forty-seven tickets matched the four white balls and Mega Ball to claim $10,000 a piece. Ten of those plays had the Megaplier to balloon their prize to $40,000.
More than 1,300 tickets matched the four white balls for $500 a piece, with 255 including the Megaplier to push their award to $2,000. More than 1.36 million tickets matched the Mega Ball to win back their $2 bet, though 258,153 tickets included the Megaplier to net $6.
