The winning numbers were: 13, 36, 45, 57 and 67, plus the mega ball 14.
The estimated prize was $1.28 billion, or $747.2 million cash.
The jackpot was the second largest in the 20-year history of the game. In 2018, the jackpot reached $1.537 billion.
“Congratulations to the Illinois Lottery for selling the winning ticket for the estimated $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot,” said Ohio lottery director Pat McDonald, currently serving as lead director for the Mega Millions consortium. “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history. We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon. Better still, this exciting jackpot run has had a significant positive impact on the revenues for good causes raised by our member lotteries.”
While the jackpot win is the big news, there were other prizes won Friday night.
Twenty-six tickets matched all five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize.
According to a news release from Mega Millions, there were no million dollar winners in Virginia.
In total, there were 14,391,740 winning tickets sold across all nine prize tiers in the July 29 drawing, including the single jackpot-winning ticket.
In the 30 drawings in this jackpot run, there were more than 42.5 million winning tickets at all prize levels. The $1 million-plus prizes were won in 24 different states across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
In Friday night’s drawing, more than 405,000 Mega Millions tickets bought in Virginia won prizes. That includes four tickets that matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball number. Normally that wins $10,000, however, one of those players spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier when they bought the ticket. The Megaplier doubled that prize to $20,000.
The $20,000 winning ticket was bought online at valottery.com.
The three $10,000 winning tickets were bought at:
- 7-Eleven, 13821 Heathcote Blvd. in Gainesville
- Wawa, 510 West Shirley Ave. in Warrenton
- Sheetz, 15 Wyche Road in Stafford
Of those 405,000 winning tickets bought in Virginia for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing, more than 64,000 were bought online at valottery.com.
During the 29 drawings of the jackpot run that began in April and ended with Friday night’s drawing, sales of Mega Millions tickets in Virginia generated an estimated $30.2 million in profit. By law, all of that profit goes to K-12 public education in the Commonwealth.
Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 p.m. The odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24. Prizes start at $2 and increase all the way to the jackpot.
The jackpot for the next drawing on Tuesday, August 2, resets to $20 million ($11.6 million cash).
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Crystal Graham
