Mega Millions player wins $560M jackpot — ending 3-month drought

Somebody’s feeling like a million bucks!

A Mega Millions player in Illinois won the jackpot worth $560 million on Tuesday night, ending a drought lasting just over three months.

The winning numbers were 19, 37, 40, 63, 69, and the gold Mega ball 17.

It was the ninth-largest jackpot prize in the game’s history.

The unidentified, single ticketholder purchased their ticket online using the state’s lottery website.

The lucky winner can claim the outright $560 million or choose the one-time cash payout of $264.0 million.

Tuesday night’s historic win marked the first time a jackpot winning ticket was sold online, in either the Mega Millions, according to the lottery’s website.

It was just the 14th time someone in the Prairie State won at least a share of the Mega Millions jackpot.

New York holds the record for 43 jackpots won, according to the blog jackpocket.com

Illinois State lottery rules allow winners of prizes larger than $250,000 to request their names and their municipality of residence be kept confidential when completing a winner claim form.

Tuesday’s late-night drawing also saw two ticketholders, one in California and Maryland, win $1 million each for matching all five white balls.

The last time an Illinoisian player won the Mega Millions grand prize was when an anonymous trust claimed the $1.337 billion jackpot winning ticket purchased in Des Plaines on July 29, 2022.

It is the second time the Mega Millions jackpot ballooned past $500 million since last summer.

Mega Millions players have a 1 in 302,575,350 chance of winning the jackpot in any drawing.

It is also the first time the grand prize was won since March 26 when a lucky New Jersey player purchased a ticket worth $1.13 billion, a total of 20 drawings between jackpot winners.

The March jackpot win was the fifth largest in the game’s history.

The life-changing ticket was sold at ShopRite Liquor on Route 66 in Neptune Township.

The New Jersey grocery store received a $30,000 bonus check for selling the winning ticket.

No winner has come forward to claim their prize, of either the $1.13 billion in annual installments over 30 years or a one-time lump sum estimated at $537.5 million.

Like in Illinois, New Jersey lottery allows winners to remain anonymous and the prizes can be claimed up to a year after the drawing.