What would you do with $800 million? That’s the question that the latest Mega Millions lottery winner is asking themselves right now after hitting the jackpot at a gas station outside Houston, breaking a streak of over 20 drawings without a winner.
According to the state lottery, 1, 2, 16, 24, 66, and the gold Mega Ball 6 were the lucky numbers selected in the ticket purchased at Murphy USA 8848 gas station located on Highway 90A in Sugar Island, Texas.
One of the first decisions the winner has to make is whether to claim the entire prize in annual payouts or choose a one-time deposit of almost half the total amount, $404.2 million.
Due to the sensitive nature of winning this big and the unexpected events it might cause, Texas has a law that allows any winner of more than $1 million in lottery prizes to remain anonymous, as is the case with this particular individual.
The latest winner of a massive $800 million Mega Millions lottery prize was announced in Houston, Texas. They can decide to receive a one-time lump-sum payment or the total amount over a year
According to lottery officials, the winning ticket was bought at the Murphy USA 8848 gas station on Highway 90A in Sugar Land, Texas.
The gas station is located across the street from Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, 21 miles southwest of downtown Houston, and will be rewarded $1 million for selling the lucky ticket.
This marks the third time the Mega Millions grand prize has been won in 2024, behind a $1.13 billion prize sold on March 26 and a $552 million prize sold on June 4.
Four other lucky players from New York, California, Florida, and Washington, respectively, each claimed a minor prize of $1 million.
The most enormous amount ever recorded for a Mega Millions jackpot was awarded to an anonymous individual who bought their ticket at a Publix supermarket in Neptune Beach, Florida.
The prize, worth an astounding $1.62 billion, was cashed in on August 2023. However, the winner decided to receive the one-time, lump-sum payment instead, lowering their amount to $794,248,882.
According to Mega Millions, the chances of taking the jackpot home are slim, with odds at one in 302,575,350
For perspective, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an individual has less than one in a million chances of being hit by lightning and one in nine million getting struck twice.
Other rare circumstances that are more likely to occur to a person than winning the Mega Millions jackpot include finding a high-value pearl in an oyster at one in a million; finding a lucky four-leaf clover at one in 10,000; finding a two-headed animal at one in 100,000; and getting killed by a vending machine at one in 112 million.
One of the few things rarer than winning the lottery is getting squashed by a meteorite, with an extremely low likelihood of around one in 840 million. Only two cases have ever been recorded of such an event, one in 1888 in Iraq and another in 1954 in the United States.
As is the case with each time someone takes the jackpot home, the Mega Millions grand prize is reset to $20 million, which will take effect next Friday onwards (September 13).
Mega Millions Winner Scores $800M Jackpot With Ticket Purchased At Local Gas Station Bored Panda
