Mega Millions player in California wins $1.3 billion jackpot

(Reuters) – A Mega Millions ticket holder in California woke up much richer on Saturday after matching all six numbers in the lottery hours earlier and winning an estimated $1.3 billion, the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

The winning ticket, which matched the numbers 3, 7, 37, 49 and 55 as well as the gold Mega Ball 6 in Friday’s drawing, was sold in Cottonwood, California, about 200 miles north of San Francisco, Mega Millions said in a statement .

“What a great gift this holiday season! “At an incredibly special time of year, this is an incredibly special moment for our winner,” said Joshua Johnston, Executive Director of the Mega Millions Consortium.

The lottery reached the $1.269 billion mark after no one matched all six numbers in the last 30 drawings. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

The largest ever jackpot in U.S. lottery history came in November 2022, when a single ticket holder in California won a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Diane Craft)