Mega Millions final drawing of 2021 produced the winning numbers: 2, 5, 30, 46, 61, and Mega Ball 8; the Megaplier was 3X. So, did anyone see in the New Year with a bang?
The jackpot stood at an estimated $221 million, with a cash option of $157.1 million, according to the Mega Millions website. But no one took home the biggest prize on offer following the draw on Friday, December 31.
However, there were two big winners who matched five white balls. One ticket bought in North Carolina won $1 million, while another player in Michigan trebled their prize to $3 million, thanks to purchasing a $1 Megaplier.
There were 22 winners of the $10,000 prize whose tickets matched four white balls and the Mega Ball. Six of those tickets used the Megaplier to treble their money.
Meanwhile, 572 tickets matched four white balls to win $500, and 102 of them played the Megaplier. Some 1,596 tickets matched three white balls and the Mega Ball to win $200, 264 of them playing the Megaplier.
In total, the December 31 drawing produced over 937,000 winning tickets of at least $2. The jackpot now grows to $244 million on Tuesday for the first drawing of 2022. There will be a cash option of $172.5 million.
Although no one took the top prize this time, 2021 saw a number of big winners.
At the start of the year, a $1.05 billion prize was won by a group of Michigan players, while in May, a five-strong group in Pennsylvania won the jackpot and chose the cash option, earning them $254,233,980 after taxes.
In September, a ticket holder in New York won the jackpot in which the top prize was $431 million.
Jeffrey Phillips, 62, from Washtenaw County, Michigan, described his joy at winning a $2 million Mega Millions prize in the November 26 drawing. He matched five balls but doubled his winnings by playing the Megaplier when he bought his ticket in Chelsea, west of Ann Arbor.
"I can't comprehend the feeling of winning or put it in to words," said Phillips. "It still doesn't feel like this is real," he said, according to the Mega Millions website.
How To play
One of the country's most popular lotteries, there are Mega Millions drawings every Tuesday and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET.
Five white balls are drawn from balls numbered 1 through 70 and a yellow Mega Ball is drawn from a set numbered from 1 to 25.
Tickets cost $2 per play and for an extra dollar in most states, there is the Megaplier option, which can increase non-jackpot prizes between two and five times.
If there is no jackpot winner, the money is added to the top prize for the following drawing. Once the jackpot is won, the top prize is reset to $20 million.
Tickets are available in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, they can not be bought in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
