Did you win? Here are the numbers for Friday’s $750 million Mega Millions lottery drawing

Noel Harris
·2 min read

Californians are among the millions of people across the nation with two shots to win more than half a billion dollars this weekend.

The first chance came Friday, with the drawing of the $750 million Mega Millions multistate lottery game.

The winning Mega Millions numbers for Jan. 15 are 3, 11, 12, 38, 43, and the Mega number is 15, officials in Atlanta said during the drawing at 8 p.m. Pacific.

The bad news first: You did not win the jackpot. Now for the good news: Neither did anyone else. The Mega Millions website late Friday night shows Tuesday’s jackpot is now estimated at $850 million.

The top prize has an estimated cash value of $628.2 million, according to lottery officials. The lucky winner will have to pay federal taxes, although California is one of just 10 states to exempt state income tax on lottery winnings.

The $850 million jackpot is the second largest in the game’s history, nearly $200 million more than a prize that was split three ways in March 2012. Only a $1.54 billion prize claimed in October 2018 by one lucky winner in South Carolina was larger.

The jackpot, before taxes are taken out, is about 1.7 times the 10-year, $503 million deal agreed to in July by Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs. If the prize is won by one person, they could afford to pay off the entire contract and still have plenty of coin lying around.

Mega Millions tickets are $2 each and the game is drawn on Tuesdays and Fridays. To play, you must select five numbers between 1 and 70, and a “Mega” number between 1 and 25. Players have a 1 in 24 chance of winning any given drawing, though you’ll have a 1 in 302.6 million shot at winning the jackpot. Tickets for this game are sold in 45 states across the country, plus Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands.

If you win less than $600, you can take your ticket to a retailer in exchange for cash, according to the California Lottery. If you win more than $600, download a claim form and deliver it to any lottery district office or mail it to 730 N. 10th St., Sacramento, CA 95811.

If you didn’t win anything in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing, you can soon have another shot at riches. Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is estimated at $640 million. Nobody won Wednesday’s $556.7 million drawing.