A Lucky Ohio Resident Just Won a $372 Mega Millions Jackpot
We have a winner!
A lucky lottery player in Ohio hit the jackpot on Tuesday with the Mega Millions, snagging $372 million after correctly matching all five numbers, as well as the gold Mega Ball. The prize translates to $251.5 million in cash, according to the Mega Millions website.
The winning numbers were 22, 30, 53, 55, and 56, with 16 for the gold Mega Ball.
The lucky ticket was sold at a Giant Eagle in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, according to ABC 7 and CNN. The Giant Eagle will reportedly receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
According to Mega Millions’ website, Tuesday’s jackpot is the 14th largest prize ever. There were six previous Mega Millions winners this year from six different states: Texas, New Hampshire, California, New Jersey, Missouri, and New York.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever was won last year in South Carolina. The anonymous winner chose the cash option of a one-time payment of $877,784,124 of the initial $1.5 billion winnings — the largest jackpot payout to a single winner in United States history, the South Carolina Education Lottery Commission said in a statement.
The victor also revealed that on the day they bought the winning ticket, they had allowed another customer to cut them in line while at the store.
“The winner marvels at how every decision made that day brought the winner to the store, at that very moment, to make the Quick Pick Mega Millions lottery ticket purchase,” the statement read. “A simple act of kindness led to an amazing outcome.”
The store that sold the winning ticket, KC Mart in Simpsonville, S.C., received $50,000.
By late October 2018, the Mega Millions jackpot had skyrocketed over $1 billion. A few days later, it was announced that a ticket purchased in South Carolina matched the numbers (5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 5) for the $1.537 billion haul.
