5 winning lottery tickets sold in Iowa were 1 number away from Mega Millions jackpot
Friday’s billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot may have been won with a ticket purchased in Illinois, but five tickets in Iowa were just one number away from a share of the giant prize, according to the Iowa Lottery.
The five Iowa tickets matched winning numbers in different ways, the Iowa Lottery said in a news release Saturday, with one ticket winning a $2 million prize and the other four winning prizes of $10,000 each.
The winning numbers for the $1.337 billion jackpot were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.
The $2 million-winning ticket was purchased at the Big 10 Mart in Bettendorf, Iowa — one of six tickets across the country to win at that prize level in Friday’s drawing.
The ticket matched the five white balls but missed the Mega Ball to initially win a $1 million prize. However, the person who purchased the ticket added the Megaplier option, which multiplied the total prize to $2 million, according to the Iowa Lottery.
Big 10 Mart will receive a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $2 million-winning ticket.
The four Iowa tickets that won $10,000 prizes in the drawing matched four of the five white balls and the Mega Ball. Those tickets were purchased at:
New Star Newton in Newton
Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh Express in Storm Lake
Casey's in Manchester
Hy-Vee Gas in Mount Pleasant
The $2 million-winning ticket must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive, while the $10,000-winning tickets can be claimed at any of the lottery’s offices, which include Clive, Cedar Rapids, Mason City and Storm Lake.
Database: Find Iowa's biggest lottery winners
Iowa Lottery players bought more than $5.6 million in tickets for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing, including more than $3.4 million in tickets on Friday alone.
Mega Millions jackpot was nation's third-highest lottery prize
Someone in Illinois purchased a ticket that earned them nearly $1.34 billion in the Mega Millions jackpot Friday night, according to the lottery game's website.
The closely-watched jackpot, which climbed by hundreds of millions in just the last week alone, is the second-largest in Mega Millions' history. It also marks the nation's third-highest lottery prize yet, across all games.
One lucky ticket in Illinois won it all, beating the 1 in 303 million odds of winning the game's jackpot. Mega Millions didn't identify the ticket holder by name as of Saturday morning.
At the time of Friday's drawing, the jackpot was $1.28 billion. Lottery officials reported the amount rose to $1.337 billion Saturday morning. The $1.337 billion jackpot is for winners who choose the annuity option, with the prize paid over 29 years. Most opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $780.5 million.
Friday's Mega Millions jackpot became so large because no one had matched the game's selected numbers since April 15 – marking 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
The Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million and grow based on ticket sales and interest rates, according to the game's website. If no one wins, the amount is added to the jackpot for the next drawing.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.
When looking across all the nation's lottery games, just two prizes have topped Friday's $1.337 billion so far: The $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot and a record-breaking Powerball jackpot of $1.586 billion won on Jan. 13, 2016.
— USA TODAY reporter Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report.
Grace Altenhofen is a news reporter for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at galtenhofen@registermedia.com or on Twitter @gracealtenhofen.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Winning $2 million Mega Millions ticket sold in Bettendorf, Iowa
