Mega Millions $552 million jackpot winning ticket was sold online in Illinois

A Mega Millions jackpot prize of $552 million has been won by a ticket buyer in Illinois who did it the new-fashioned way, making the purchase online.

The winner has yet to come forward to claim their prize, Meghan Powers, the director of communications for Illinois Lottery, told CNN Wednesday.

While Tuesday night’s jackpot was $552 million, the winner can choose the cash option of $260 million, according to Mega Millions.

The winning numbers? 19, 37, 40, 63, 69 and gold Mega Ball 17.

There are over 7,000 retailers in Illinois that sell Illinois Lottery tickets, according to Powers, but the winner purchased theirs through the online platform and not in a store, she said.

Illinois Lottery has been selling tickets online since 2012 and was the first jurisdiction to do so, Powers noted. About 25% of tickets for Tuesday night’s draw were bought online in Illinois, she said.

The jackpot has been rolling since March 26 when a New Jersey customer clinched the $1.1 billion prize, the fifth-highest in Mega Millions jackpot history, at a Neptune ShopRite supermarket.

According to a Mega Millions news release, tickets are sold for $2 in 45 states, Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands, and “in most jurisdictions” players can add a Megaplier for an additional dollar. A Megaplier increases non-jackpot prizes by two to five times depending on which ball is picked from a pool of 15.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in over 302 million, according to the release.

The next jackpot drawing will be on Friday at 11 p.m., with an estimated prize of $20 million and a cash option of $9.4 million.

Mega Millions became a billion-dollar bet in October 2018 when a ticket bought by a woman in South Carolina came out to $1.537 billion and became the highest Mega Millions prize on record. This record was surpassed in August 2023 by a Florida ticket-buyer who won a $1.6 billion jackpot.

The record for the world’s largest lottery prize goes to the $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in California, won in November 2022. The total has not been topped since.

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