Mega Millions today July 29: we have a $1.28 billion jackpot winner!

A history-making lottery drawing took place on Friday night...with over $1 billion on the line, and a Mega Millions player in Illinois is said to have taken home the prize. Of course, if they take the lump sum, after taxes they will only receive a fraction of the advertised jackpot.

The winning numbers were: 13, 36, 45, 57, and 67 with a Mega Ball of 14

It would appear that we finally have a massive jackpot winner after Brett Forrest reported that Illinois’ official lottery website stated it had one winner matching all five numbers plus the Mega Ball. We await official confirmation.

It should also be said that across the various state lottery sites there is some conflicting information so we’ll keep a close eye on it and as more information becomes available we will provide it.

It is possible for more than one winner to be selected, so make sure to check your tickets if you haven’t already!

If the winner chooses the cash option, they are eligible to receive $747.2 million. If the numbers drawn were selected by more than one person, they would have to split the winnings evenly.

The jackpot was the second largest ever won in Mega Millions history, surpassed only by the October 2018 victory of a South Carolina lotto player who won $1.537 billion.

When did this historic run begin?

This historic jackpot is the result of three and a half months of steady growth.

The fact that so many states participate in the game allows Mega Millions to offer such enormous cash prizes. Tickets can be purchased in forty-five states, Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands, making it the largest lottery game in the country.

However, more players means more competition and as the jackpot grows, so do ticket sales. For the drawing held on 26 July, 166,280,263 tickets were sold, up from 86,159,722 sold for the previous drawing on Friday 19 July. If the number of players increases at the same rate, it is possible that 200,000,000 tickets would have been bought for this past Friday’s event.

The origins of Mega Millions

Mega Millions was not always the most prominent game in the United States. In 1996, the first six states to come together to establish the game were Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Virginia. Six years later, three more states, New York, Ohio, and Washington, joined the ranks, and “the game matrix and prize amounts were changed to offer players more excitement.” One year later, in 2003, Texas joined, followed by California in 2005. At this point, with twelve states offering the game, it became the “country’s most widely played multi-state jackpot game.”

When is the next Mega Millions drawing?

With the Mega Millions drama of the last three months over, we get to start it all again. The drawing for the new jackpot will take place on Tuesday 2 August at 11 p.m. ET.