Mega Millions Ticket Worth $1.4 Million Sold In LA County

LOS ANGELES, CA — Possibly the only thing that could make a $1.4 million Mega Millions ticket disappointing is coming in one number shy of winning the jackpot, which is now estimated to be nearly a $1 billion. One lucky lottery player in Los Angeles County is holding a ticket with five numbers, but missing the Mega number.

The ticket, worth $1.4 million was sold at a convenience store in Artesia, the California Lottery announced. No tickets were sold matching all six numbers in the latest drawing of the multi-state Mega Millions lottery, pushing the estimated jackpot for Friday's drawing to $970 million — the third-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

Ten tickets were sold outside California that matched five numbers but were missing the Mega number. Eight are worth $1 million while two sold in Florida are worth $2 million because the players utilized the Megaplier option, where for an additional $1 any non-jackpot prize will be multiplied by the Megaplier number drawn, the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game, announced.

California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis.

The numbers drawn Tuesday were 10, 19, 26, 28, 50 and the Mega number was 16. The jackpot was $865 million, the third-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The drawing was the 36th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.

The only larger jackpots than Tuesday or Friday's were $1.586 billion for the Jan. 13, 2016, Powerball drawing and $1.537 billion for the Oct. 23, 2018, Mega Millions drawing.

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 Mega Millions game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.