After a run of 29 drawings without a jackpot winner, the 30th drawing of the multi-state Mega Millions game produced a single US $1.28 billion winner last night when one lottery ticket sold in Illinois matched all five numbers plus the Mega Ball.
It was the fourth time a lottery jackpot had grown to more than $1 billion, and the third time a single ticket won $1 billion or more.
The winner of the massive haul will choose between being paid US $1.28 billion in 30 annually-increasing payments over 29 years or the lump-sum cash value of $747.2 million.