Winning Mega Millions jackpot ticket with estimated £417m prize sold in Indiana

A winning Mega Millions ticket was sold in Indiana with the prize estimated at $540m (£417m), including $381m in cash. Mega Millions said this was the third jackpot winner, the first being from New York and the second from Washington.

The ticket won the third highest jackpot in Mega Millions history and the most ever won on a single Mega Millions ticket, Mega Millions said in a news release on Saturday (9 July). Co-incidentally, all the three winners so far came from drawings on the 8<sup>th of the respective months of January, March and July, it said.

The latest winning combination from the Friday (8 July) drawings was 8, 19, 20, 55 and 73. Mega Millions said that their record jackpot was worth $656m and three tickets shared that jackpot on 30 March, 2012. The second highest jackpot amount of $648m was split by two winners on 17 December, 2013. Friday's jackpot is the third largest for the Mega Millions game and the seventh largest American lottery jackpot in history, Mega Millions noted.

A day before the lottery drawing, Paula Otto, executive director of the Virginia Lottery and lead director for the Mega Millions group, said, "The excitement is palpable as this is the largest American lottery jackpot since the world record $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in January. Sales are expected to grow stronger right up until Friday night's drawing."

Following the drawing, Otto said that the four-month run was "great" and resulted in "millions of dollars" being generated for beneficiaries across America.

"In total during this four-month jackpot run since 8 March, there have been almost 80 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 67 Match 5 tickets worth $1m or more," the press release stated.