$800 Million Jackpot Won: Mega Millions Winner in FL
29th July 2026 11:02 AM
The Mega Millions jackpot had reached a formidable $800 million for the draw on July 28, when it was won by a single ticket holder in Florida. They've got 180 days to come forward and claim, and won't be able to remain anonymous once they've done so… Here's the latest on the big draw.
The Draw Results
The winning numbers for the July 28 draw were 34-48-49-59-70 and 12 for the Mega Ball. Besides the jackpot win, there were two tickets that landed the runner-up prize by matching all five main numbers, just missing out on the Mega Ball. A player in New York won $3 million, while an Illinois player won $5 million (if you don't normally play Mega Millions, each ticket comes with a multiplier of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 that applies to all non-jackpot prizes).
Besides those three noteworthy prizes, there were just under 646,000 winning tickets sold for the draw.
Jackpot Rankings
The jackpot for the draw was valued at $800 million if taken as an annuity or a one-time $344.2 million cash option - on average, the cash option is more popular with big winners. They'll need to pay the 24% federal tax on lottery winnings, but Florida doesn't levy any state tax on lottery prizes.
This jackpot is the 10th biggest Mega Millions prize of all time, pushing the 2012 $656 million prize shared between three winners in Illinois, Kansas, and Maryland out of the top 10. It's tied for size with another $800 million jackpot which was won in Texas in 2024.
The Mega Millions jackpot had been rolling up for just over four months without a win, having last been won on March 17 at a value of just $60 million. Despite the duration of this jackpot roll, it was still a long, long way from the record Mega Millions jackpot of $1.602 billion. The record prize was also won by a single ticket in Florida, although it was claimed using a legal trust – Saltine Holdings LLC – to preserve the winner's anonymity.
What next for lottery fans?
The good news for lottery fans is that, despite the Mega Millions jackpot being reset to the starting value of $50 million, the substantial Powerball jackpot is still growing! The estimated value of the top prize for the next draw is $660 million.
The jackpot growth-rate has been boosted by the recent addition of the United Kingdom. Despite this, however, the amount the Powerball jackpot has been increasing by for each draw has been lower than we might normally expect. Lottery analysts are speculating that this jackpot slowdown could be caused by the big two lotteries (Powerball and Mega Millions) running similar-sized jackpots simultaneously, splitting the lottery audience between them. If that's the case, we should see much stronger Powerball growth now that Mega Millions has been won!
If you’re interested in taking part, check out our Tickets Page and get yours online!
Page Last Updated: Wednesday July 29th 2026, 11:02
