North Carolinians won big in Tuesday’s record Mega Millions drawing with nine tickets winning $10,000, two Multiplier tickets winning $30,000, and two lucky tickets winning $1 million.
The $1 million tickets matched all five white balls in the drawing. One was sold at the Circle K on Harrison Avenue in Cary and the other at the Zoom Express on Skyway Drive in Monroe.
“We can’t wait to meet the two lucky players who won $1 million,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. “This record Mega Millions jackpot created a lot of fun and along the way that fun produced a big win for education in our state.”
Estimates are that Mega Millions ticket sales in North Carolina during the 26 drawings raised $24.5 million for education this year. The money will help the lottery meet its goal of raising more than $667 million this year for its good cause.
A single ticket sold in South Carolina claimed the $1.537 billion jackpot, the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket. The winner can claim the prize as an annuity or take a lump sum cash prize of $877.8 million cash. The Mega Millions jackpot will reset for $40 million, or $22.8 million cash, on Friday. The $1.58 billion Powerball jackpot in January 2016 remains the largest jackpot ever.
Tuesday night’s winners have 180 days to claim their prize. In all, 407,312 tickets won prizes in North Carolina, ranging from $2 to $1 million and totaling $4.1 million. The winning numbers in the drawing were 5-28-62-65-70 and 5 for the Mega Ball.
Two tickets matched four white balls and the Mega Ball, winning a base prize of $10,000. Because the buyers of those tickets added the $1 Megaplier feature, the prize for each of those tickets tripled to $30,000 when a 3X multiplier was picked in the drawing. Those lucky tickets were sold at the Food Mart (Dev Mart) on East Mountain Street in Kernersville and at a Food Lion on Gilead Road in Huntersville.
Nine other $2 tickets matched four white balls and the Mega Ball, winning $10,000. Those lucky tickets were sold at:
• Petro Mart, Wayside Road, Raeford.
• Benson Food Mart, East Main Street, Benson.
• Scotchman, N.C. 172, Hubert.
• Sheetz, Yadkinville Road, Mocksville.
• Speedway, N.C. 66 South, Kernersville.
• Sunrise Food & Gas, West 3rd Street, Siler City.
• Lowe’s Foods, 29th Avenue Northeast, Hickory.
• Pit Stop, South Main Street, Winston-Salem.
• Huntersville BP, South Statesville Road, Huntersville.