Mega Millions reaches $820 million as questions remain about mystery Powerball winner

News

by Dana Kennedy

July 22, 2023 | 4:52 p.m

Mega Millions lives up to its name.

If someone ends up getting a jackpot ticket for Tuesday’s drawing, they could win $820 million.

Mega Millions officials said Saturday that the looming jackpot is the fifth largest in the game’s history.

The odds of winning are pretty remote – 1 in 302.6 million, but tickets are snapped up.

Winners have the option of paying a lump sum, which in this case would take home $422 million, or they can choose to have the full grand prize paid out in annuities over 29 years.

Most of the big prize winners choose the cash option.

Friday’s drawing resulted in eight tickets matching five white balls for the $1 million prize.

Mega Millions said two lots were sold in Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina, one in California and one in Michigan.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the US Virgin Islands.

Questions remain about the identity of the person who picked up the winning $1.08 billion Powerball ticket at a neighborhood convenience store in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The store owners originally said the winner was an older woman who came into the store and was caught on video pointing to her winning.

Shocking the gathered crowd as well as the store workers, the woman fell to her knees shouting “God bless you” and hugged the staff, then ran away.

However, she then escaped without showing a ticket or giving her name, according to a clip from KNX News.

It is still not clear if she was really the winner.

In videos posted on social media, the woman ran from the store crying: “I’m scared now, I’m so scared.”

said store owner Nabor Herrera kcal He thought the woman was a fake, but then said that his daughter thought the woman’s mother might be the winner.