Mega Millions Jackpot Winner! $149 Million Ticket Sold At Pennsylvania Gas Station

The Mega Millions jackpot saw its first winner from Pennsylvania Tuesday, when a ticket worth $149 million was purchased at a gas station near Pittsburgh. The winner’s identity is not yet known, and won’t be until the newest Mega Millions winner comes forward to claim the jackpot, but the owners of White Oak Gas & Grocery on Fawcett Avenue in White Oak are $100,000 richer — their bonus for dispensing the winning Mega Millions ticket.

Pennsylvania started selling Mega Millions tickets in 2010, but no one had ever won the jackpot in that state, until now.

Tuesday’s winner marked the fifth time the Mega Millions jackpot has been won in 2014, with less that five full months gone. With odds of 258,890,000 to one, five winners since January 7 is a remarkable pace.

The $149 million top prize is not even the biggest of the five jackpot awards won this year. That was a $400 million Mega Millions jackpot won in Milpitas, California on March 18. The jackpot winner was also a “lucky 13” for Mega Millions — the 13th drawing since the last winner.

The previous winner was Leopold Choi of Los Angeles, who bought a ticket worth $30 million for the April 4 Mega Millions drawing.

The Pennsylvania winner will collect the full $149 million only if that person chooses to take the jackpot in 30 annual payments, averaging $4,966,667 each. The single-payment cash option — the option selected by the vast majority of Mega Millions, and all lottery winners — is $86.5 million.

Of that, the federal government takes a cut of $21,625,000. Pennsylvania, however, collects no state tax on lottery winnings, leaving Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot winner with $64,875,000 to spend in whatever way that person wants to.

There was also a second-prize Mega Millions winner Tuesday, as a single ticket-buyer in Michigan matched the first five numbers but not the Mega Ball, to win a total of $1 million before taxes.

All told, 2,055,895 of the 27,951,519 Mega Millions tickets sold for Tuesday’s drawing won at least some cash — most of those winning the minimum $1 prize.

Was yours one of the winners? Check your Mega Millions ticket against these numbers, drawn at 10:59 pm in Atlanta, Georgia.

10 —40 — 63 — 64 — 69 Mega Ball 7

The jackpot now resets to $15 million for Friday’s drawing as Mega Millions begins looking for its sixth jackpot winner of 2014.