Maine Ticket Claims $1.35 Billion Mega Millions Top Prize

Maine won his first Mega Millions jackpot — and someone won a bad luck on Friday the 13th — when a ticket bought in the state matched the winning numbers for the lottery’s $1.35 billion grand prize.

The lucky combination of numbers drawn late Friday night were: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61, and a golden Mega Ball 14. According to the Maine Lottery, the winning ticket was sold at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine. A city in southern Maine with a population of over 6,500 borders New Hampshire.

“It was quite noisy at our small town gas station this morning, I’ll tell you that,” owner Fred Cotro said. The first thing he did was check to see if he bought the winning ticket, which he didn’t have.

“Hopefully one of the residents and one of the regular customers will be the winner,” Cotro said. “It’s great that I sold it, but it’s even more interesting for one winner and I just really hope it’s someone here in town.”

The winner, who is yet to be named, broke a steep 1:302.6 million odds, resulting in three months of draws without claiming the jackpot.

“Congratulations to the Maine Lottery, which just won its first Mega Millions jackpot,” Pat McDonald, director of the Ohio State Lottery and lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement.

CONNECTED: Mega Millions Draw: Here are the $1.35 Billion Jackpot Winning Numbers

The jackpot was the second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game had a billion dollar win. The biggest Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018 was $1.53 billion and was won by a single ticket holder in South Carolina.

Friday’s lucky draw also marked the seventh time that the top prize was won on Friday the 13th, a superstitiously unlucky date.

To qualify for the full $1.35 billion, the winner would have to receive the money in an annuity with annual payments over 29 years. Most jackpot recipients prefer the smaller but faster cash option, which is valued at $724.6 million for the Friday night draw.

The next top prize draw on Tuesday will drop to around $20 million, with a cash option of $10.7 million.

CONNECTED: 10 Biggest US Lottery Jackpots Ever Won

Until Friday night, there were 25 draws in a row without a jackpot winner.

More than 7 million winning tickets across nine prize categories were up for grabs on Friday. In addition to the Maine jackpot, 14 tickets matched five white balls to claim the $1 million second tier prize. Four were sold in New York, two in California and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to Mega Millions.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states plus Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands.