A record $1.269 billion Mega Millions ticket was sold in Northern California. Here’s where
A record-breaking winning lottery ticket was sold in Northern California on Friday.
A Mega Millions ticket sold in Shasta County was the only ticket nationwide to match all six numbers, hitting for a state record $1.269 billion, which amounts to $571.9 million in cash when taken as a lump sum, according to a California Lottery news release.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the California Lottery said the winning ticket was purchased at a Circle K at 3505 Rhonda Road in Cottonwood, right off of Interstate 5. The store will get a $1 million bonus, a news release said.
The winning numbers were: 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and 6.
The state lottery record is the fifth-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history, and the seventh Mega Millions jackpot greater than $1 billion, a news release said.
“Well, it’s a giant win in a small town,” California Lottery spokesperson Carolyn Becker said in a statement. “(It) was the only place to sell the country’s only jackpot winning ticket for Friday night’s Mega Millions draw advertised at $1.22 billion ... in California, we were very excited to sell the jackpot winning ticket.”
The California Lottery features eight draw games and introduces dozens of new instant scratchers games each year, a news release said.
Becker said that the person who bought the winning ticket has a year to come forward and claim their prize.
“With someone hanging on to what is now a very, very valuable small piece of paper, our advice for the player who hit the jackpot tonight is make sure you sign the back of that ticket,” Becker said. “Keep it safe. It’s really important that you don’t lose it, because it is literally your ticket to the prize money.”
Once the winner comes forward, there is a “really rigorous vetting process to protect the integrity of the win,” Becker said. The process, she said, can take a couple of months so it may be some time before the winner is revealed.
The $1.269 billion figure is a record for Mega Millions wins in California history, but the state has been bigger wins for Powerball jackpots, including a $2.04 billion score drawn in November 2022. That ticket was sold in Altadena.
The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday — New Year’s Eve — resets to its starting value of $20 million, worth about $9 million cash as a lump sum, the news release said.
There has never been a Mega Millions jackpot win on New Year’s Eve, lottery officials said.
Who else hit the lotto?
Shasta County wasn’t the only California area to claim winning tickets.
Two more California Lottery players missed the jackpot by just one number, matching the first five numbers correctly, a news release said.
One winning ticket was sold at a Chevron gas station in Roseville, located at Blue Oaks and Foothill boulevards in Roseville. The other was at Cardenas Market in San Bernardino.
Those two winning tickets are each valued at just over $787,500.