Here are Friday’s winning Mega Millions numbers as jackpot surpasses $500 million
Update: A winning ticket was sold in Pennsylvania, Mega Millions officials announced Friday night.
Original story:
Only eight other jackpots in the 19-year history of the Mega Millions lottery game have been larger than Friday’s estimated $515 million jackpot that has been climbing since the last time someone won it in New York on Feb. 16.
The winning Mega Millions numbers for the Friday May 21 drawing are 6, 9, 17, 18 and 48, and the Mega number is 8, Mega Millions officials in Atlanta said during the drawing just after 8 p.m. Pacific.
The top prize for Friday has an estimated cash value of $346.3 million, according to lottery officials. The winner has to pay federal taxes, but California is one of just 10 states to exempt state income tax on lottery winnings.
Two Mega Millions jackpots have already been won this year. A New York couple won $96 million on Feb. 16, and a group of players in Michigan on Jan. 22 won $1.05 billion, which was the second-largest jackpot in the game’s history.
The biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was a $1.537 billion prize in October 2018 in South Carolina. The top U.S. lottery payout, a Powerball jackpot of nearly $1.59 billion, was split between three tickets on Jan. 13, 2016, with winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Since Feb. 16, there have been more than 17.8 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 31 worth $1 million or more.
Mega Millions tickets are $2 each and the game is drawn on Tuesdays and Fridays. To play, you must select five numbers between 1 and 70, and a “Mega” number between 1 and 25. Players have a 1-in-24 chance of winning anything in a given drawing, with odds of winning the jackpot at about 1 in 302.6 million.
Tickets for this game are sold in 45 states across the country, plus Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands. Sales end at 7 p.m. Pacific time the day of the drawing and the numbers are revealed an hour later.
If you win less than $600, you can take your ticket to a retailer in exchange for cash, according to the California Lottery. If you win more than $600, download a claim form and deliver it to any lottery district office or mail it to 730 N. 10th St., Sacramento, CA 95811.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 8:02 PM.
