If you don’t have a New Year’s tradition for bringing luck and good fortune, you might want to start a new one: kick off the year by playing your lucky numbers on a Mega Millions ticket. January has long been a hot month for Mega Millions Top Prize lottery wins, and this year is no exception. A ticket sold in CA hit the $426 million jackpot on Friday, Jan. 28. The cash value of that prize is a still-impressive $292.9 million before taxes.
Friday’s Woodland Hills, CA winner continues the trend started in 2005 by Margaret Jones of GA who hit the $131 million jackpot on Jan. 18 that year. In the 17 years since 18 other Mega Millions players have taken the Top Prize in the month of January.
They can’t all be winners
The only year since 2005 that didn’t see a January winner was – somehow not surprisingly – 2020. The next year picked up the slack though, when a lottery club in MI hit the second-highest ever Mega Millions prize of $1.05 billion. 2011 and 2009 saw two Top Prize winners each. In 2011, two players split the $380 million prize won on Jan. 4, and in 2009 there were two big winners within two weeks of each other.
The latest January jackpot prize came just short of cracking the list of the top 10 highest for Mega Millions. $451 million was the number to beat, which was – you guessed it – another New Year jackpot hit in January of 2018.
One PA county enjoys a streak of their own
Another lucky streak is garnering attention in PA. Lottery players in Bucks County have recently hit three major prizes over $1 million in the space of eight days.
On Jan. 20, a Powerball ticket sold at Wegman’s in Warrington won the second-tier prize after matching all five white balls. That ticket won the player $2 million instead of the usual $1 million because they added the $1 Power Play option to their ticket.
Another player won the first-ever Top Prize on PA Lottery’s new $5 Million Money Maker Scratch-Off, after ponying up $50 for the ticket at a Wawa in Bensalem. It’s a good thing they did, because they’ll receive a $5 million windfall for taking that leap of faith.
And a Bucks County player also hit the jackpot on PA’s Cash 5 with Quick Cash game on Jan. 27. The Grand Prize for the daily draw game was up to $1.85 million when they picked all five numbers correctly at Five Brothers Produce Market in Bristol.
In Pennsylvania, tickets for draw games are available at local lottery retailers as well as online at the PA Lottery. Sign up here to receive $20 free plus a deposit match bonus up to $500.