By: Najla Alexander
NJ Lottery officials announced that a Bergen County player won $4 million Friday, marking New Jersey’s biggest Mega Millions prize since the nationwide game’s format changed in April.
The player matched five white balls, missing just the gold Mega Ball for a $1 million base prize, lottery officials say. Thanks to the game’s new rules, the player was automatically entered into a random multiplier, which was 4X.
That lifted the prize total to $4 million.
According to NJ Lottery officials, Friday’s numbers were 26, 49, 58, 61, and 63. The Mega Ball was 09. 7-Eleven #34205, 1 Kinderkamack Road, Montvale, sold the ticket. No players won the jackpot, which exceeds $326 million heading into Tuesday’s drawing.
The payout is no fluke. Higher values were embedded in all prize tiers when the rules changed in April. Players now receive a multiplier as part of the game's cost. Previously, players would have had to pay extra to get a chance at a multiplier, lottery officials stated.
From April through mid-June, NJ Lottery officials said Mega Millions players across the country have seen more than a fourfold increase in non-jackpot prizes for a total of more than $112 million.
Under the game’s previous rules, those non-jackpot prizes would’ve been about $25 million, lottery officials say.
Among other game changes that took effect in April:
· Improved overall odds: Overall odds to win any prize improved to 1:23 from 1:24 due to the removal of one gold Mega Ball. The new game features 24 Mega Balls instead of the 25 in the previous game.
· Improved odds to win the jackpot: Odds to win the jackpot improved to 1:290,472,336 from 1:302,575,350 due to the removal of the one gold Mega Ball.
· Larger starting jackpots: Following a jackpot win, the starting jackpot resets to $50 million instead of the previous $20 million.
· Faster-growing jackpots and bigger jackpots more frequently: Jackpots are growing faster and getting to higher dollar amounts more frequently. The average jackpot win in the new game is estimated to be more than $800 million vs. about $450 million in the previous game.
· Win more than the cost to play: With a minimum prize of $10 on a winning ticket in the new game, every winning ticket pays out at least double the $5 cost for each play. In the previous game, the minimum prize on a winning ticket and cost to play were the same at $2.
NJ Lottery officials stated that the full prize matrix is available here.