The winner had a one in 302,575,350 chance of winning this jackpot.
“What an incredible gift this holiday season!” said Joshua Johnston, the principal director of the Mega Millions consortium, when he announced that a winning ticket for the jackpot of 1.22 billion dollars (approximately 1.17 billion dollars 'euros) was sold in California (United States). This ticket corresponded to the six numbers of the drawing carried out on Friday December 27 evening.
This is the fifth largest jackpot in the history of this very popular lottery in the United States. A good deal for the mysterious winner, since this ticket only cost him two dollars, if he bought just one…
According to Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 302,575,350! The game had not seen a winner for more than three and a half months, which explains the high amount of the prize pool.
However, the lucky person, so far unidentified, will not be able to recover their entire winnings in one go. According to the rules of this lottery, the first option available to the person in possession of the winning ticket is to spread the jackpot of $1.22 billion in annual payments over a period of 29 years, indicates Mega Millions. Specifying that “each payment is 5% higher than the previous one”.
As for the second option, it would consist of activating the “cash option”. In this case, the winner receives a one-time lump sum in cash, estimated according to the New York Post at $549.7 million. Dilemma.
