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The winner of the Friday’s (November 14) $989 million jackpot’s actual take home total has been revealed.
Georgia taxes lottery winnings as income at 5.14% on top of the 24% in federal taxes withheld by the IRS, meaning the player, who purchased the ticket at a Publix grocery store in Newman, will either get $240 if they take the lump sum or payments totaling $522 million, which will be about $17.4 million annually for 30 years, according to USAMega.com. Winning tickets in the state of Georgia are valid for 180 days and must be redeemed within the state.
Georgia winners can also opt to keep their identity secret if they win a prize exceeding $250,000. The Mega Millions jackpot will reset to $50 million for Tuesday’s (November 18) drawing. Results from Friday’s Mega Millions game are listed below:
NUMBERS: 1-8-11-12-57
GOLD BALL: 7
Friday’s drawing was the eighth-highest Mega Millions jackpot in the game’s history and the 14th-largest in U.S. lottery history. Mega Millions jackpot previously reset after a single ticket sold in Virginia matched all six numbers during the estimated $348 million Mega Millions drawing on June 27, according to MegaMillions.com.
A player in New Jersey won the $1.13 billion drawing on March 26, 2024, which was the fifth largest in the game’s history and the eighth largest in U.S. history. The jackpot reset four times in January 2023, which included one player in Maine winning the estimated $1.35 billion drawing on January 14, one player in New York winning the following $20 million drawing on January 17, one player in Massachusetts winning the $31 million drawing on January 24 and another player in Massachusetts winning the $31 million drawing on January 31.
The January 14, 2023 Mega Millions drawing was the second-highest in the game’s history and offered the fourth-largest jackpot in the U.S. lottery history. Mega Millions tickets rose from $2 to $5 prior to the April 8 drawing and officials said the increased revenue will improve a player’s odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 303 million to 1 in 290 million, which will lead to more sales.
“People really want big jackpots,” said Joshua Johnston, the Washington state lottery director for the Mega Millions game, via the New York Post. “We expect to see a sales lift on this.”
Higher ticket prices would allow the jackpot to start at $50 million, rather than the $20 million it resets to after a jackpot hits during the last prior drawing, while the next jackpot would swell even larger if there isn’t a big winner. Additionally, the minimum prize of $10 on a winning ticket will double given the rise in cost for a ticket, according to lottery officials.
Lottery players will reportedly have a 1 in 23 chance to win any prize, an improvement from the 1 in 24 odds prior to the price change, officials confirmed to the New York Post. Mega Millions has only previously changed its price one time since its launch in 2002.