Lottery officials verify that the winner has come forward with the winning ticket
By Kate Northrop
The New Jersey lottery winner of the $1.128 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawn on March 26 has officially submitted the winning ticket and started the claims process.
New Jersey Lottery officials announced today that the winning ticket for the $1.128 billion Mega Millions jackpot has been validated and that the claims process has begun.
After nine months, one anonymous winner finally brought the lone winning ticket for the $1.128 billion Mega Millions jackpot before Lottery officials. It was purchased at the ShopRite grocery store on Route 66 in Neptune Township, which received a $30,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling it.
Lottery winners in New Jersey have one year from the draw date to claim prizes before the ticket expires.
The Mega Millions winning numbers for Tuesday, March 26, 2024 were 7, 11, 22, 29, and 38, with Mega Ball number 4. The Megaplier was 2.
The anonymous jackpot winner opted to take the cash value of the prize which comes to $537.5 million before state and federal taxes. According to USA Mega's Mega Millions Jackpot Analysis, the winner will receive $280.4 million after all taxes are paid. New Jersey has one of the highest state taxes in the country, forcing lottery winners to shell out a whopping 10.7% of their prize for the privilege of winning in the state.
As New Jersey allows lottery winners to remain anonymous indefinitely, we may never find out the identity of New Jersey's newest multi-millionaire. The identities of lottery winners are not included in materials subject to records requests under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act.
Lottery Post maintains a state-by-state list of lottery privacy laws throughout the United States and several other countries.
For New Jersey, this is by far the largest lottery jackpot ever won in the state. The previous record-holder in the state was a $533 million Mega Millions jackpot, won by one ticket in the March 30, 2018 drawing. The prize was later claimed by Richard Wahl, a production manager at a northern New Jersey food services facility.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.6 million.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 24 at 11:00 p.m. EST for a whopping $944 million jackpot (now raised to $970 million), set to make holiday wishes come true just before Christmas.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm EST. Tickets cost $2 each.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Whew! I thought this was never going to be claimed. The lucky winner is way more patient than me. Congrats to the winner!
Me next!!! :)
Glad this was claimed by the anonymous jackpot winner
The only reason in the world l would wait for Nine months to Claim my $1.13 Billion dollars is if am in a Coma 😃 do you know how much your $1.13 Billion has depreciated in 9 months this is not reasonable 😎 . For me tops four weeks and that is if am already on vacation otherwise 24 hrs lol 😝 To be honest if I ever wait this long l be dead already just thinking about it day after day night after night absolutely can't sleep 😴 and my company better not paste me off because I say you know what l don't need all this headache 🤕 😃 if this is how he plans to manage $1.13 Billion dollars then Good luck 👍
He's stupid to wait this long but not stupid enough to claim it publicly.
9 months does it really take that long to get affairs in order?
Yea 30 days for me not sure if lottery will say they misplaced paperwork or treat me like Calif... 4 months
I'm very happy for the winners and $280.4 million is life changing money after taxes but <snip> Uncle Sam just <snip>ed them and stuffed his pockets with about $848 million dollars from their colossal prize. Seems very unfair, but the best option is to take the annuity option when prize amount is half a billion or more if you're thinking about generational wealth for the long run.
You do know $500M of that $1.1B doesn't really exist right?
Nine months is an obscene amount of time to wait to claim any prize. You could be dead and buried 100 times in that span.
How long does it take to find a lawyer, financial advisor and tax guy? For me? A few hours.
Some states are changing the rules on how long it will take you to claim your fund because of people like this l recommend that the state of New Jersey change the rules from 12 months to Six months to Claim mega million or Powerball so all this lazy people can get up and pick up $1 billion in a reasonable manner it's unbelievable 🎅 even Santa Claus is scratching his head 🎅 . In Florida you now have only 180 days or six Months to claim Mega millions or Power ball and l think other states should follow too.
Might Mr/Ms anonymous lottery winner have at least in part waited this long to claim their ticket precisely because their story may get pushed back in the news cycle ... ie Friday before Christmas and also the fact that their is a current mega jackpot waiting to be won?
Just my $.03 on the topic.
If patience was a person, this is it.
Enjoy your winnings.
Who knows how many ducks they wanted to get in row? Maybe they decided that getting the money at the beginning of the year was a good idea, and by starting their claim this late in the year the money will probably be transferred by mid-January. They won't need to make their final tax payment until 15 months later in April 2026. That's a lot of extra flexibility.
Of course it's also possible that they're one f those people who buys an occasional ticket and tucks it away somewhere, although if I only played now and then and heard that store I used had sold a jackpot that might just attract my attention.
Wonder if the previous winner Richard Wahl, wishes he could have been anonymous??
Patience is a virtue but having that kind of wealth in someone else's pocketbook for 7-9 months ?? Bless you for having that kind of waiting ability in your repertoire. I hope the time was worth it. Congrats on your newly acquired financial riches and enjoy for generations to come.
strange that they waitted this long maybe they had a reason holidays maybe lot of money for one person
Congrats smart jackpot winner!
NOBODY waits this long to claim a monster jackpot, unless the intention is to defraud someone else. MAD MAD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
Ok let me try and process this just a little. When he won the Billion dollars the price of bitcoin was half or less than half what it is now and he wanted Lump sum and let it sit doing nothing for Nine months now Bitcoin is almost two to three times but his money did absolutely nothing for three months. I don't recommend investing all your money in bitcoin but he could have actually doubled what he put in just thinking 🤔
maybe the winner was in the middle of getting divorced and waited until all that was settled before claiming.
BINGO!!!. Fraudsters everywhere. It has happened before, and when the judge found out what happened , all the money was awarded to the other side.
depends on when the ticket was bought. if bought some time after filing, i'm not sure if the ex necessarily gets any of it. anyway i think the divorce theory is far fetched. i just like to be provocative sometimes. it's probably yet another case of someone misplacing their tickets for months and months.
I think that the ticket fell out of the owners back pocket onto the floor while he was in the water closet 'taking care of business' and got stuck to his winter boot ..... and the boot got out away for the season ...... until it was brought back out for the winter... Thus I betcha the ticket has boot prints on it!
P.U.: Hoo Kut Da Cheez?
Just curious CDT,but does it matter when within the year you have to claim it make a difference at all taxwise?
You would still be entitled to the same amount,right?
I know the state would end up making more on the interest until it's claimed but other than that?
Just asking, Bux
Up here it's a bit different as it's tax-free