Mega Millions lottery drawing time and everything to know as jackpot hits $1.58bn – latest

The Mega Millions lottery is played in 45 states, Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.

However, because lottery rules vary state by state, it means there are only some states that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous - while others require individuals to disclose their identity.

Maintaining anonymity is only permitted in 16 US states, including Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, and Wyoming.

Additionally, these states may have their own limitations or restrictions, such as prize thresholds or a limited time period where a person can remain anonymous. For example, the names of those who win $600 or more in the Arizona lottery are confidential for 90 days after the prize has been awarded, and they can choose to remain anonymous if they win $100,000 or more.

Here is a look at the 10 largest US jackpots that have been won and the states where the winning tickets were sold.

Planning a run on the Florida town’s supermarkets after last night’s result?

This is where you need to be - it lies due east of Jacksonville and north of Orlando on the Atlantic coast.

According to News4JAX, last night’s winning ticket was sold in a Publix supermarket in Neptune Beach, Florida.

The winner now has 180 days to claim their money in person at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, according to the rules.

The $1.58bn prize is the largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, narrowly beating out the previous high of $1.537bn sold in South Carolina in 2018.

It is still some way short of the ?2.04bn Powerball bonanza won by Edwin Castro of California last November.

Mega Millions last announced a jackpot winner on 18 April, when a $20m ticket was sold to one lucky individual in Syracuse, New York.

Mega Millions has announced the winner of a massive jackpot that had accumulated to a $1.58bn amount after no tickets matched all six winning numbers from Friday’s drawing.

The name of the player who matched all the six winning numbers has not been announced yet, but the website of the lottery has declared that an individual from Florida has won the massive jackpot.

The winner will now be entitled to two options to receive the prize.

If the winner chooses the lump sum payment option, they will be entitled to a cash payment of $783.3m. If the winner chooses an annual payout, the money will be received by them over 30 years.

Winning individuals usually prefer a lump sum option. The money will then be subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.

According to Timothy Schultz, a podcast host and YouTuber from Iowa who won a $29m Powerball jackpot in 1999 and who spoke to Fox News in November, there is no denying that winning the lottery is “one of the most potentially life-altering things that can happen”.

“One minute you have one life,” and the next “your world is turned on its head,” he said.

However, according to Schultz, who uses his podcast to interview other lottery winners, while the “euphoria is real,” it eventually “subsides,” at which point he said you realise “money doesn’t change who you are as a person”.

“If you were unhappy before, you might be unhappy after,” he claimed. “There are some very wealthy people in the world who are extremely unhappy. Money can be positive, but it doesn’t necessarily fix all problems.”

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“It’s entertaining for our players, and all of us, to see the Mega Millions jackpot roll to what looks like an all-time game record,” said Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium.

“As jackpot fever continues to sweep the nation, we remind everyone to play responsibly. We also want to thank our players and retailers for their support, which helps us fund good causes in every Mega Millions jurisdiction.”

If a lucky individual wins Tuesday’s jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing, they could walk away with a cash option of $783.3m.

Experts agree that there are a few things each lottery winner should consider before making any decisions at all.

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On Tuesday night, eager lottery participants will once again vie for an enormous Mega Millions prize, positioning it as the third-largest jackpot in the annals of US lottery history.

With an estimated value of $1.55bn, this substantial reward has been steadily amassing over the course of several months due to an unbroken sequence of 31 draws devoid of a jackpot claimant.

The most recent instance of someone securing the game’s highest accolade dates back to 18 April, reports said.

Each draw that concludes without a victor propels the prize ever nearer to the remarkable $2.04bn benchmark set by a Powerball jackpot winner in California last year.

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11pm ET.

Five white balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 70; one gold Mega Ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 25, according to the Mega Millions website. “You win if the numbers on one row of your ticket match the numbers of the balls drawn on that date.”

There are nine ways to win a prize, from $2 to the jackpot. If no one wins the jackpot, the money is added to the jackpot for the next drawing. Overall chances of winning a prize are 1 in 24.