Texas Ticket Wins $122 Million
Last Updated: Wednesday 7th August 2013, 15:58
The MegaMillions jackpot of around $122,000,000 was won by a single ticket holder on 9 January, according to lottery officials. The winning numbers were 07, 11, 26, 38, 54 and the Mega Ball was 13.
No one has yet come forward to claim the prize, and it is quite possible that the winner isn't even aware of their good fortune at this point in time. Several previous MegaMillions players have only discovered their luck weeks, or occasionally months after the winning draw took place. Officials have said that the winning ticket was purchased in Amarillo, Texas, and the hope is that this information will encourage players in that particular area to check and double-check their tickets.
MegaMillions, which has two draws each week on Tuesday and Friday, is well known for it's substantial jackpots. The minimum jackpot is $12 million, but with a few rollovers it can increase to many times that amount. Although the £122 million jackpot won in Tuesday is large (to say the least) it still pales in comparison to the record $363 million that was won in May 2000 when the lottery was referred to as the "Big Game".
The odds of winning, however, are slim, with each ticket (bearing 5 main numbers from 56 and 1 Mega Ball number from 46) having a 1 in 175,711,536 chance of landing the jackpot. Participants can live in any one of twelve US states, namely California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington, and with nine prize tiers the overall chance of winning any prize is 1 in 40.
With the $122,000,000 jackpot having been won, albeit by a currently unknown player, the next jackpot for the MegaMillions draw on Friday 12 January is reset to the minimum of $12,000,000.