$426 Million Lottery Ticket Sold in California!

Only One Ticket Hit Friday Night’s Mega Millions® Jackpot, Sales Totals Raise the Win to $426 Million

RELEASE DATE: 1/29/2022

SACRAMENTO – This will prove to be a winning weekend in a MEGA big way for at least one California Lottery player. Someone bought the only jackpot-winning Mega Millions ticket in the country for last night’s draw; that ticket was sold at the Chevron station at 6061 Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County).

This Mega Millions draw sequence, which began with a $20 million jackpot back in October of 2021, rolled a whopping 27 times to a jackpot of $426 million for last night’s draw; that’s up more than one percent from the advertised jackpot of $421 million thanks to skyrocketing sales. Sales for the entire sequence in California (comprising 28 draws) totaled $110.3 million, which means California’s public schools will receive an estimated $40 million!

“It’s always exciting when we have a winning ticket with such a big jackpot in California,” said Alva V. Johnson, Director of the California State Lottery. “What makes it particularly meaningful is that California’s public schools are also a big winner! Raising money for education is why the Lottery exists in the first place, and we take a lot of pride in that.”

This is already the third jackpot hit in California since 2022 began, though it is the first Mega Millions jackpot. Earlier this month, a ticket hit the SuperLotto Plus® jackpot for a $13 million win, and another jackpot ticket won a staggering $316 million in Powerball® just five days into the new year.

The winning ticket for last night’s draw matched all six numbers that were drawn (3-16-25-44-55 and the Mega ball number 13). The Lottery will not know who the winner is, or winners are, until they come forward to claim the big prize. The jackpot winner (or winners) has one year to come forward. They’ll have the choice of taking a lump sum payment of approximately $293,000,000 (before federal taxes), or the entire jackpot amount in 30 graduated payments over 29 years. The federal government taxes lottery winnings, but California does not collect state or local taxes on Lottery prizes.
 
If a person believes they have the winning ticket, they will need to complete a California Lottery claim form. Claim forms are available on our website, at all Lottery District Offices, and at any of our more than 23,000 Lottery retailers throughout the state. Lottery suggests winners sign the back of their ticket in ink, make a copy of the front and back and put it in a safe place until they can claim their prize.

The Chevron station will get a $1 million retailer bonus just for selling the winning ticket.

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The California Lottery’s mission is to provide supplemental funding to California public schools, including kindergarten and grades 1-12, community colleges, the California State University, the University of California, and other California public educational entities. The funds the Lottery transferred to public education totaled more than $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2020-21, which amounted to a modest percentage of education’s overall budget. However, this funding is largely nondiscretionary, meaning schools can use this for important, yet unfunded instructional programs they would otherwise not afford. During the same period, the Lottery generated almost $8.4 billion in sales, more than 95% of which went back to the community in the form of prize payments, retailer commissions and bonuses, and contributions to education. As jackpots rise, the California Lottery would like to remind players that gambling should be fun. Borrowing money to play, spending above a person’s budget, or using money intended for other purposes can ultimately lead to significant problems for players and their families. If a player recognizes that they have a gambling problem or if someone knows of someone who may have a problem, the Lottery recommends calling the California Problem Gambling Help Line at 1-800-GAMBLER.

Media contact: Cathy Johnston, California Lottery, (916) 996-0206