A Record Has Been Made, Someone Won IDR 24.2 Trillion Lottery Prize

Illustration of Mega Millions. (WIkimedia Commons/Tony Webster)

JAKARTA - An unnamed Mega Millions lottery installer managed to win a grand prize of USD 1.58 billion or around IDR 24,211,209,000,000 last Wednesday, making him one of the biggest lottery winners in the United States.

The winner bought a lottery ticket at the Publix Super Market in Neptune Beach, a coastal residential area east of Jacksonville, Florida, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported, as quoted by Reuters, August 9.

The winner managed to beat the odds 1 in 302.6 million to win the multistate game, by matching all the lottery numbers drawn on Tuesday which were 13, 19, 20, 32, 33, and the Megaplier was 14.

Quoting The Washington Post, the winner will receive all the prizes won, but with an annuity system for 30 years. Or receive cash payments all at once, but only IDR 12,002,936,715,000, an option that many lottery winners are interested in.

Experts say the winner usually discusses with lawyers and financial experts regarding the prize scheme he won.

The Mega Millions top prize was last won by a player in New York in April, with a $20 million prize pool.

Meanwhile, the record for the highest lottery prize is Powerball, where a winner in November 2022 won the USD 2.04 billion top prize, according to media reports.

The record for the biggest Mega Millions win reached 1.537 billion US dollars, which was won in October 2018.

It is known that Mega Millions changed its game rules in 2017, according to its website, increasing the initial jackpot from USD 15 million to USD 40 million, increasing ticket prices from USD 1 to US$2.

This changes the odds of winning the grand prize, from 1 in 258,890,850 to 1 in 302,575,350.

The last time the Mega Millions jackpot hit $1 billion was in January, when an investment group claimed a $1.348 billion ($723.5 million cash) prize in Maine.

Lottery tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington D.C and the U.S Virgin Islands.