Nation’s Ninth-Largest Largest Lottery Jackpot Won in Northern California

A ticket with all six numbers in Friday evening’s multi-state Mega Millions lottery draw was sold in Cottonwood in Shasta County and the player has the option of receiving $1.22 billion, the ninth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history of the game, in 30 graduated annual installments or a lump sum cash payment of $549.7 million before federal taxes.The ticket was sold at the Sunshine Food and Gas convenience store in Cottonwood in Shasta County, the California Lottery announced.There were also two tickets sold in California with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, one at a supermarket in San Bernardino, the other at gas station in Roseville. They are each worth $787,543.While tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners.The tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, sold in Arizona, Missouri and Texas are each worth $1 million, lottery officials said.The numbers drawn Friday were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and the Mega number was 6. It was the 31st drawing since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold on Sept. 10.The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number are 1 in 302,575,350, according to the California Lottery. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.The jackpot is the fifth-largest in the history on the Mega Millions game, which began in 1996 as The Big Game and was given the new name Mega Millions in 2002. There have been four Powerball drawings with larger jackpots, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts Powerball gameThe Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.The jackpot for Tuesday’s drawing will be $20 million.