Two Mega Millions ticket holders are waking up to some very exciting news today! Two winning tickets matched all six numbers drawn for the $400 million jackpot Tuesday. The two winning tickets came from Florida and Maryland.
ALERT – 2 Winners from Florida and Maryland split 400 MILLION DOLLARS #MegaMillions jackpot!!! CONGRATS to them! #400M
— Mega Millions (@MegaMillionslot) March 19, 2014
According to USA Today , the winning numbers drawn in last night’s $400 million mega millions drawing were 11, 19, 24, 33, 51 and Mega Ball 7. This jackpot is one of the largest in US lottery history, so it wasn’t all that surprising to see stores flooded with Mega Millions players over the past few days.
According to Fox News , the lump-sum option for the entire Mega Millions jackpot was $224 million. The report continued on to say that the cash option for each of the two winning tickets is about $112 million. “After taxes, the winner would get $74 million,” the Maryland lottery officials said.
Shelly Gerteisen of the Florida state lottery reportedly stated in an email that the Florida winner now has 180 days to claim their prize, and their name, along with their city of residence, will be released to the public by lottery officials.
According to Fox News , the winning Florida ticket was sold in Merritt Island, just south of Cape Canaveral and the retailer who sold the ticket will receive a $100,000 bonus. The report continued on to state that they Maryland winner has 182 days to claim their prize and does have the option to claim it anonymously. So far, lottery officials haven’t identified the Charles County retailer that sold the winning Maryland Mega Millions ticket.
These two tickets weren’t the only big winners in last night’s drawing. Mega Millions posted on Twitter that there were another 8 tickets that won $1 million each!
$1 Million prize winners => 1 from California, 2 from Florida, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Maryland, 2 from New York, and 1 from Texas
— Mega Millions (@MegaMillionslot) March 19, 2014
Those who won the $1 million in last nights Mega Millions drawing did so by matching five of the winning numbers. While $1 million may not seem like a lot given the huge jackpot that was up for grabs, just remember that the chances of winning anything can be slim to none!
According to an earlier report by The Inquisitr , the odds against you for each single Mega Millions number you play, are an eye-popping 258,890,000 to one! I bet that $1 million dollar prize isn’t looking all that bad now, does it!