Mega Millions $1.6billion lottery jackpot has a SINGLE winner

THE winning numbers of America’s biggest ever lottery jackpot have been revealed–with the lucky ticket holder hailing from South Carolina.

Last night's Mega Millions lottery draw numbers were 5-28-62-65-70 and mega-ball 5.

There were feverish ticket sales this week after Mega Millions revealed the colossal grand prize for yesterday’s draw of £1.2billion ($1.6billion).

Lottery officials said that a ticket with the winning numbers for the jackpot was sold in South Carolina.

“The Mega Millions jackpot was finally won on Tuesday night, and a single lucky ticket holder in South Carolina can claim a tremendous lottery jackpot – an estimated $1.6 billion ($913.7 million cash),” the official lottery website confirmed today.

Spokesman Gordon Medenica said: “The moment we’ve been waiting for finally arrived and we couldn’t be more excited. This is truly a historic occasion.

"We’re so happy for the winner and we know the South Carolina Education Lottery can’t wait to meet the lucky ticket holder.”

In total there were 15,750,013 winning tickets on Tuesday night, in addition to the jackpot winner.

Catherine Doyle-Johnston, a California Lottery spokeswoman, said that the lucky ticket was sold at a Safeway store at 730 Taraval Street in West Portal.

And tickets with the five winning numbers were bought from seven other stores in the state. Officials are not sure as yet how much money each will win.

And it was actually possible for Brits to get their hands on tickets and chance their arm at becoming a billionaire.

While physical tickets are only available in US stores – overseas punters were able to buy them from websites like theLotter.

The service uses local agents in America to snap up tickets before flogging them to customers from around the world.

It charges buyers a transaction fee but takes no commissions from winning tickets.

Last night's draw meant that if a player hit all six numbers they could opt for an immediate cash payment of $904million (£798million) - or receive the $1.6 billion (£1,2billion) prize over 29 years.

It is so much money that if you had it all in $100 bills, you could make a stack about as high as the World Trade Centre in New York, the lottery’s website said.

The colossal purse would also make any lucky winner richer than all the Kardashians combined.

Mega Millions said today that “in addition to the jackpot winner, the sales frenzy produced a whopping 36 second prize tickets – each matching the five white balls drawn Tuesday night.

“Eight were in California, four each in Florida and New York, two each in Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia, and one each in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.”

Based on sales projections, 75 per cent of the 302million possible combinations were to be snapped up for Tuesday’s drawing, the Associated Press reported Sunday - making the chance of a winner being drawn more likely than not.

The odds for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions jackpot were one in 302.5million, while there’s a slightly better chance — 1 in 292.2 million — of winning the $620 million Powerball prize Wednesday night, said AP.

If there had been no winner, lottery officials said the estimated jackpot would have jumped again for Friday’s draw, to a whopping $2billion.

For those who didn't win on Tuesday, today's separate Powerball lottery prize sits at a respectable $620million (£476million) - making it the fifth largest prize in US history.

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