Are you $865 million richer? Here are Tuesday’s winning Mega Millions lottery numbers
With more than $1.5 billion dollars at stake over a two-day span, Californians are among the millions of people across the country who may hear Clint Eastwood’s voice from the first “Dirty Harry” movie: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?”
The first shot at riches came Tuesday night with the Mega Millions drawing. The winning numbers for Jan. 19 were 10, 19, 26, 28 and 50, and the Mega number is 16, officials in Atlanta said during the drawing at 8 p.m. Pacific. The jackpot was estimated at $865 million, increasing from $750 million when there was no winner on Jan. 15.
Lottery officials revealed just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday that no tickets matched all six numbers, so Friday’s estimated jackpot increases to $970 million.
The top prize now has an estimated cash value of $716.3 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.
Friday’s jackpot, the second-largest in Mega Millions history, is $314 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 last time the jackpot was won was Sept. 15, when one ticket in Wisconsin matched all six numbers for an estimated $119 million prize.
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 anything in a given drawing, with odds of winning the jackpot at about 1 in 302.6 million. 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 Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing, another shot at riches comes Wednesday in a different lottery game. The Powerball jackpot is estimated at $730 million. Nobody won Saturday’s $640 million drawing.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Are you $865 million richer? Here are Tuesday’s winning Mega Millions lottery numbers."