<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>One Mega Millions ticket sold in Northern California has won Friday's estimated $US1.22 billion ($1.96 billion) jackpot – believed to be the fifth-largest prize in the history of the game, the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="" title="US"><span>US</span></a><span> lottery says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The ticket – the first to win the jackpot in over 100 days – matched all six winning numbers: 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and Mega Ball 6.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Friday's Mega Millions jackpot amounts to $884 million in cash.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/plane-catches-fire-at-south-korean-airport/9746b322-68c7-475f-8fd1-f40b0558757a" rel="" target="" title=" Death toll in fiery plane crash in South Korea rises to 47"><strong><span>Death toll in fiery plane crash in South Korea rises to 47</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The prize surged since its last drawing on Christmas Eve, when no winner took home the estimated $1.6 billion jackpot.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Friday's grand prize was previously estimated at $1.85 billion but grew ahead of the highly-anticipated drawing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The winning ticket was sold at Sunshine Food &amp; Gas in Cottonwood, Shasta County, according to the </span><a href="https://www.calottery.com/draw-games/mega-millions"><span>California State Lottery</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/usa-lottery-billion-dollar-winner-california/ee647b9d-9df8-4140-896e-7d4b20fe7531" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The store will get a $1.6 million bonus for selling the ticket, the lottery said in a news release – the most a store can earn.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ishar Gill, whose family has owned and operated the store for the past 20 years, was shocked by Friday's win.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/trailblazing-model-dayle-haddon-dies-from-suspected-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/6a70f34f-d50e-4e2f-8433-b1796eb26681" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Trailblazing model dies from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It didn't really set in until we saw the California lottery post that said, 'this is where the ticket was sold,'" Gill, who manages the store for his father, told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The whole family was excited."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The store saw more traffic ahead of the billion-dollar jackpot drawing, selling a little over 1000 tickets on Friday, Gill told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That's significantly more than they would sell on a normal day, he added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I would say 75 per cent of our daily customers are locals," Gill said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We get a lot of support from our local community and basically almost everyone knows each other."</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2024/11/25/13/27/news-headlines-2024-year-in-review-pictures-australia-world-entertainment-sport"><img alt="" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/EYqhGVlScmyQc5Hh6tgdoA71oiI=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F49f701e5-2beb-45bf-b395-2202f238a560" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/EYqhGVlScmyQc5Hh6tgdoA71oiI=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F49f701e5-2beb-45bf-b395-2202f238a560 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/Yjtxlh6xMtSfB4Tp4k8bK0VbvbM=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F49f701e5-2beb-45bf-b395-2202f238a560 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">The biggest sport stories of the year</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2024/11/25/13/27/news-headlines-2024-year-in-review-pictures-australia-world-entertainment-sport">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Still, the family does not know who purchased the winning ticket, Gill said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As for the cash bonus, Gill says the family plans to give back to their close-knit community. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Whatever we can do to help," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Friday's win is only the fourth Mega Millions jackpot won in 2024 and just the seventh time in the game's history that the jackpot has soared past $1.6 billion.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The six others were awarded in South Carolina in 2018, Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine and Florida in 2023 and New Jersey in March.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Florida prize is the game's record jackpot at $2.5 billion.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Five other tickets sold in Arizona, California, Texas and Missouri won $1.6 million each in Friday's drawing by matching the first five numbers, the lottery said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Congratulations to our $1.22 billion jackpot winner from California," Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a news release.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/humpy-island-shark-attack-man-suffered-neck-injuries-the-keppels-queensland/c24554a0-b747-430f-9bc1-5c8ec0534b06"><strong><span>Man dies after shark attack in Queensland</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"What an amazing present this holiday season! At an incredibly special time of year, this is both an incredibly special moment for our winner, and for all the great organisations and causes that benefit from lottery ticket sales around the country."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With only one more drawing this year, odds are the year will end with the fewest jackpots won in any single year since the game started in 2002, according to the lottery. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Only three other people have won this year, down from ten jackpots awarded in 2023.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On September 10, a Houston-area resident claimed the last jackpot, $1.3 billion, after purchasing the winning ticket at a gas station convenience store in Sugar Land.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Before that, a $888 million jackpot was taken in Illinois on June 4 and a $1.7 billion prize was won in New Jersey on March 26.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The jackpot for the New Year's Eve drawing on Tuesday resets to the starting value of $32 million.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There has never been a Mega Millions jackpot win on New Year's Eve, according to the lottery.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Chances of winning the lottery are miniscule, experts say</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Since Mega Millions began, there have been 217 jackpots won by 244 individual tickets.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The chances of winning any prize in the lottery game are 1 in 24, according to the Mega Millions website, but the odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Concerns have been raised by researchers that the chances of winning the Mega Millions are not only minuscule, but that state lotteries also siphon funds from impoverished communities under the guise of a chance to acquire wealth.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A study by the Howard Centre for Investigative Journalism found that in 2022, stores selling lottery tickets were disproportionately located in the impoverished communities of every state, with proceeds going to far away colleges and wealthy school districts, rather than their community.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>According to the company's press release, half of the proceeds from each lottery ticket remain in the state where the ticket was sold to support "good causes and retailer commissions".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sam-kerr-by-grandmother-coral-kerr-side-in-hospital-as-driver-charged-over-incident/5ee8972c-1874-4ff0-a487-0a8fba4aedf6"><strong><span>Sam Kerr's grandmother hit by car where her grandfather was killed</span></strong></a><span> </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2022, the Howard Center study found that ticket sales had grown from $75 billion to $131 billion, generating more revenue than corporate income taxes in ten states.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tickets are priced at $3.20 ($US2), with players in most jurisdictions given the option to pay an additional dollar to multiply their non-jackpot prizes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The company announced in </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/business/mega-millions-ticket-price/index.html"><span>October</span></a><span> that the price will more than double in April 2025, as they promise bigger prizes in return. Each ticket will be $8 ($US5).</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Winning numbers for the jackpot are announced every Tuesday and Friday on the Mega Millions website.</span></div></div>