One lucky person beat odds of 1 in 302.6 million to win the Mega Millions jackpot of $1.58 billion.
All that’s known about the single winner of the August 4 multi-state game is that he or she bought the quick-pick ticket at the Publix grocery store at 630 Atlantic Boulevard in Neptune Beach, Florida, 15 miles east of Jacksonville.
Under Florida law, a lottery winner can remain anonymous for 90 days following claiming the prize in person at Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee. The winner can choose to be paid $1.58 billion in 30 annual payments over 29 years or take a lump-sum cash value of $783.3 million. The retailer will receive a $100,000 bonus commission for selling the winning ticket.
The game went for 31 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. It was the 8th time a lottery jackpot surpassed $1 billion and the seventh time a single ticket won $1 billion or more. It’s the third-largest jackpot ever and the largest in the history of Mega Millions.
Lower-tier Mega Millions prizes in the same game included seven winners of $1 million: one each from California, Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia and Pennsylvania and two from Texas. Altogether, more than 7 million tickets won $45 million in prizes across the game’s nine prize tiers.
The world’s largest lottery jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in November 2022 in California by Edwin Castro, who claimed the prize in February of 2023. Little is known about him except that he purchased one or two houses and is the subject of questionable lawsuits, according to public filings.
