Someone in California is super rich. About $530 million wealthier — or a cash option payout of $345.2 million.
A single winning ticket sold in the state matched all six numbers of the Mega Millions jackpot Friday night. The numbers were 17, 19, 27, 40 and 68 -- with a gold Mega Ball 2, contest officials announced early Saturday.
It is the seventh-largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions drawings and the largest since last October, the organization said. That jackpot came in at $1.5 billion.
This drawing awarded about half a billion dollars. That means the winner can get about 1,000 private islands, 384 castles and 833 Ferraris.
The jackpot has been accruing since it was last won in Missouri on March 12. The next drawing Tuesday has a starting value of $40 million, according to Mega Millions.
The Mega Millions lottery has players in 44 states , the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands. And the winner is definitely lucky. After changing the number of balls drawn, the odds of winning the jackpot has gone from 1 in about 258 million to 1 in roughly 302 million.
