Idaho Man Scores Big Mega Millions Payday Before $1 Billion Drawing

When you bought your ticket for Tuesday night’s $830 million Mega Millions drawing, you had visions of how the next morning was going to play out.

You were going to walk into your boss’s office, sincerely thank them for all of the opportunities you’ve had over “x” amount of years that you’ve worked there and then slap down your two weeks notice on their desk. Of course, the reason that you were feeling that bold was because you had the winning $830 million ticket in your purse.

But it didn’t play out that way. You didn’t win that big Mega Millions jackpot. We know you’re bummed, but hey…you weren’t alone. No one won that big jackpot, so Friday night’s drawing is now sitting at least $1.1 billion. Yes, billion with a “b.” It’s the third time since 2018 that the jackpot for this particular multi-state lottery eclipsed $1 billion and is currently the second largest jackpot in the game's history.

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While no winning ticket was sold, there were “Match 5” tickets worth $1 million sold in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Ohio. A single “Match 5 + Megaplier” ticket worth $3 million was sold in Ohio.

Closer to home, a Meridian man scored $30,042 in Tuesday night’s drawing! The Idaho Lottery shared Patrick Large’s big win on a ticket he bought at a Garden City Jackson’s store via their Instagram account.

Large, like many of us, will play for Friday’s enormous jackpot and we can’t blame him!

Idaho's Fantastic Mega Millions History

The Mega Millions has produced some big winners in Idaho! When the jackpot hit $380 million in January 2011, two winning tickets were sold in the Pacific Northwest. One was sold in Ephrata, Washington and the other was sold in none other than Post Falls, Idaho. The Idaho winning ticket was purchased by a single mom named Holly Lahti. Her half of the winnings totaled $190 million. The combined jackpot was the second largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history at the time.

Looking through the Mega Millions jackpot history, it looks like Lahti was the only jackpot winner from Idaho. That said, some other Idahoans have taken home a good chunk of cash by playing the game even if they didn't win the big jackpot. In January 2022, a ticket sold in Twin Falls matched all five numbers but not the Megaball. Those who play regularly know that means the ticket was worth at least $1 million. Since the purchaser opted for the Megaplier, that grew their winnings to $2 million.

Something similar happened in January 2020 in Oneida county, but the Megaplier that night was four, making that ticket worth $4 million.

Could you be Idaho's next big lottery winner? We hope so! If you're buying a ticket for July 29's drawing these are considered the luckiest places to buy your tickets in the Treasure Valley!