The winning ticket was purchased at a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, about 20 miles to the northwest. The Downtown Chicago, Illinois Lottery said Saturday.
“We still haven’t heard from the winner. We don’t know … they know they won the prize. So I encourage everyone to check your ticket,” Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays told reporters Saturday morning in Chicago.
If the holder chooses the lump-sum cash option, the ticket is a one-time payment About $780 million. Otherwise, the nearly $1.34 billion gift is spread over an initial payment and 29 annual payments.
Friday night’s winning numbers are 13, 36, 45, 57, 67 and a mega ball of 14.
A Speedway convenience store in Des Plaines will receive $500,000 for selling the winning ticket, Mays said.
The jackpot winner has a year from the drawing to claim the prize, Mays said.
The largest jackpot in a US lottery game was $1.586 billion — the Powerball prize from January 13, 2016, shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Other tickets will win bigger prizes
A few other ticket holders also won some substantial prizes on Friday.
Twenty-six tickets matched the first five numbers to win a second prize of at least $1 million.
Six of the 26 tickets won $2 million because buyers didn’t just match the first five numbers and paid an extra $1 to activate the game’s “multiplier,” which boosted non-jackpot prizes.
First Mega Millions jackpot win since April 15
The Mega Millions website became inaccessible for a few minutes after the draw on Friday night. The lottery’s jackpots start at $20 million and grow based on game sales and interest rates, according to its website.
The next draw is Tuesday at 11pm ET, with a starting point of $20 million.
Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands, where Tuesdays and Fridays start at 11pm ET. Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and DC, but the buyer must be in that state.
CNN’s Aya Elamrouzi and Steve Almasi contributed to this report.
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