Someone who bought a lottery ticket at a West Covina liquor store was just one number away from winning the ninth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
The ticket matching five numbers, but missing the Mega number, is still worth a hefty sum of $285,828. It was sold at Keg Liquor in West Covina.
On Friday, a lottery player in Chino Hills also matched five of six numbers. That ticket was worth $508,408.
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California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners. Tickets with five numbers, but missing the Mega, sold in other states are worth $1 million or a multiple of $1 million. A ticket matching all numbers except the Mega was sold in Maryland.
There was a jackpot winner in Tuesday's drawing. The lucky lottery player in Illinois has the option of receiving $560 million in 30 graduated annual installments or a lump sum cash payment of $264 million before federal taxes.
The numbers drawn Tuesday were 19, 37, 40, 63, 69 and the Mega number was 17. It was the 20th drawing since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold on March 26.
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 jackpot for Friday's drawing will be $20 million.
