Friday the 13th proved lucky for one – someone who won the estimated $1.35bn lottery jackpot after a period of three months and 25 drawings that had seen no one across the US win the grand prize. The winner, whose name is not yet known, overcame steep odds of 1 in 302.6 million and had bought their ticket in Maine, the first time the state has scored the Mega Millions lottery jackpot. “Congratulations to the Maine state lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot,” Pat McDonald, Ohio lottery director and lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement early Saturday. Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands. The jackpot was the second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game has had a billion-dollar win. The jackpot in this game was won in October 2018 – $1.53 billion claimed by a single ticket holder in South Carolina. Friday’s prosperous drawing also marked the seventh time there was a grand prize winner on Friday the 13th, a date superstitiously considered unlucky. To claim the full $1.35bn, the winner would need to take the money in an annuity with annual payments over 29 years. Most jackpot recipients prefer the reduced but quicker cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $724.6m.
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