Winning Mega Millions ticket worth $1.58 billion sold in Florida

[August 09, 2023]  (Reuters) -One lucky winner was in possession of a Mega Millions ticket worth a cool $1.58 billion, the largest prize in the game's history, on Wednesday after purchasing it in Florida and hitting all six numbers in the lottery drawing. 

The display in a store shows the Mega Millions lottery jackpot at $1.55-billion in New York City, U.S., August 8, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The winner purchased the ticket at a Publix Super Market in Neptune Beach, a coastal community just east of Jacksonville, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported.

They then beat the 1 in 302.6 million odds of winning the multistate game by matching all of the lottery numbers drawn on Tuesday of 13, 19, 20, 32, 33, and the Megaplier was 14.

The winner will have a choice between receiving the $1.58 billion in annual payments, or taking a lump sum cash payment of $783.3 million.

The last Mega Millions jackpot was won by a player in New York in April, at $20 million.

A $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in November 2022 ranks as the record highest lottery prize, according to media reports.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Stephen Coates and Doina Chiacu)

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