A ticket holder from Illinois won the Mega Millions lottery jackpot late last week. This is the second-largest prize in the history of Mega Millions, at $1,337 billion.

Illinois Wins Second-Largest Mega Millions Jackpot

The fortunate winner matched all six numbers for the July 29 Mega Millions drawing. The winning ticket matched all white numbers 13, 36, 45, 57, and 67, in addition to the gold Mega Ball 14. If the winner chooses to claim the reward in cash, they will get $780,500,000.

In addition to the grand prize, other runner-up awards were awarded on Friday. Although just one ticket matched all six white balls, twenty-six other winners matched all five white balls. This awarded them each a second-place reward of $1 million. Six of the total of twenty-six winning tickets paid an additional dollar for a Megaplier, essentially doubling their reward to $2 million. Mega Millions reports that three of these jackpots were won in Florida and one each in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Arkansas.

The remaining twenty $1 million second-tier rewards were won in fifteen additional U.S. states. In Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, two such awards were won. In New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Illinois, California, and Kentucky, a million-dollar reward was also won. Additional 375 fortunate individuals were awarded a third-tier reward for matching four white balls and the Mega Ball. Some 68 winners paid an additional $1 for the Megaplier, resulting in awards of $20,000 apiece. The remaining 307 winners would each get a reward of $10,000.

Nearly 14.5M Winning Tickets for the Drawing on July 29

Pat McDonald, the executive director of the Mega Millions Consortium, provided commentary on the subject. He complimented the Illinois Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket. Moreover, he emphasized that watching the victory of one of the largest Mega Millions prizes in history is exciting. McDonald added that Mega Millions is looking forward to finding out the identify of the fortunate winner to congratulate him. In conclusion, he said, “Even better, this thrilling jackpot run has had a substantial beneficial influence on the earnings for charitable organizations earned by member lotteries.”

The latest prize is the second highest in the twenty-year history of Mega Millions. The largest prize ever won in the game was $1.537 billion, which was won in South Carolina on October 23, 2018. There were 14,391,740 winning tickets for the July 29 drawing. This figure covers numerous awards within the nine distinct reward levels, as well as the one ticket that won the jackpot prize.