Winner of biggest lottery prize ever awarded in Virginia dreams of landscaping luxury
By Kate Northrop
BURGESS, Va. — The winner of a $348 million Mega Millions jackpot, the largest lottery prize ever won in Virginia, has stepped forward to claim it, and they already know what they'd like to buy first.
A $348 million Mega Millions jackpot winner can fulfill their dreams of landscaping luxury now that they have officially claimed the biggest lottery prize in Virginia state history.
One single person has been paid out their winnings from a $348 million Mega Millions jackpot drawn on June 27, 2025, the Virginia Lottery announced on Thursday, and they've opted to remain anonymous.
Since Virginia state law allows lottery winners of $1 million or more to claim prizes anonymously, it is likely that we may never know the identity of the person holding the check.
However, we do know what they want to buy with their winnings: a zero-radius riding lawn mower.
About four weeks after the drawing, the Lottery said in a press release, the winner walked into Lottery headquarters in Richmond and presented officials with the winning ticket for the jackpot.
The winner was faced with a choice: either accept the jackpot in annual payments over 30 years for the full amount or receive it as a one-time lump sum cash option of $155.5 million before taxes. They chose to take the cash option.
According to USA Mega's Mega Millions Jackpot Analysis, the winner will receive about $89 million after all state and federal taxes are paid.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket, E&C Mid Atlantic on Northumberland Highway in Burgess, also celebrated a win of their own. On July 22, Lottery Executive Director Khalid R. Jones visited the store to present E&C Mid-Atlantic Vice President of Operations Juan Torres with a bonus check of $50,000 for selling the only jackpot-winning ticket in the drawing.
The winning ticket matched all five white ball numbers plus the Mega Ball number to win the jackpot: 18, 21, 29, 42, and 50, with Mega Ball number 2.
According to the Lottery, this is the 10th Mega Millions jackpot win in the state since the game began in Virginia in 2002.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Friday, Aug. 15 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a $198 million jackpot.
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 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $5 each.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
ZTR mowers are 'fun' to drive, but they will tear up your lawn in a NY minute if you turn too fast especially if the grass is damp.
We had bought a used one...big mistake...tons of money spent on repairs and just ended up giving it away to a co-worker (also bought a new engine for it). Of course this person won't have these problems since no doubt the bugs have been worked out. Now we just pay $60/week for almost 2 acres with their huge ZTR's!
With 348 million or whatever is left after taxes and taking the cash option, I would hire a landscaper to mow my lawn.
Remaining anonymous is wonderful. Live in peace😊😊😊
I agree with you.
But am also thinking maybe they quit their day job and are trying to fill their days with something "meaningful" to do.
Most people play the lottery to get financial freedom from work. You then end up with so much time and don't know what to do with it because all your friends are not as rich as you are and still have to trade their time for a check.
That something meaningful to do could be very varied across individuals.
If I won the current PB jackpot, am quitting my finance job and learning how to be a mechanic and pursue photography 🙏
Good lord, from $348 million to $89 million after taxes. Uncle Sam eats so good.
Uncle Sam only ate what he always does -- his standard 37%. Mega Millions are 56% of that.
Your anger is misplaced.
I believe the $348M is meant to capture the human brain.
It's a future promise that we get sold.
The $89M is the now, today, which would not be enticing to many people.
The people that strategize the lottery know how to play with the human brain.
When am playing, I always look at the final amount after all taxes. I block out everything else.
Seems like we need a reminder about how jackpots are calculated. This and many more lottery videos are accessible by clicking "Lottery Post Videos" in the left-side menu.
* As the song goes" it's my party and l can cry if l want to" it's the winner's money & they can spend it the way they want to. 😁
It's mularky, that in order to receive the lump sum they only give you half before taxes. The crap they spin on you about this is what it would earn over 30 years in hogwash. They do it this way to encourage winners to opt for the long term so they can earn interest off of your money as well as pay winners of smaller pots
Yes, they prefer for you to take the annuity. They probably make some extra off of that. What they don't do is use your winnings to pay smaller pots. But the age of winners is on the elderly side so they just take the lump sum it seems. The more common 1 million dollar winners end up with around 460k. If you don't know that going in it must be a jolt to your cardiovascular system after you held a million dollar check for the picture and 20 minutes later they come out with a check for 463,219.00 and hand it to you. Where's the rest of it you say.
even young winners take the lump sum.
i can't remember which state lottery did this, but they had or have a game where the prize stipulates "taxes paid" and you actually get the advertised amount.
They don't earn any interest on your winnings. You get all the interest. This is why the sum of annuity payments is about double the lump sum value.
The reason why they advertise the annuity value and put the real number (cash, today) in small print is only because it's a larger number. People see a larger number and they're more likely to buy tickets. It's not false advertising but really sneaky and I don't like it.
But it so well known now it hardly seems worth discussing. They don't now at least advertise the cash value in small print. You know what you're getting in for beforehand. You have to blot it out of your mind if you hit it. It really shouldn't eat away at you all that much.
@Tucker Black
I do agree with you on the interest. The winner gets all the interest and that is why the amount being paid out after the 30 years is way more than the cash at hand/bank today.
What I like about the lump sum is that the money is invested in very safe government bonds. If the US government bonds fail, then the economy is all failed, doesn't matter where your money is, there would be a ripple effect.
If I won the jackpot today, I would put all the money in government bonds and spend the interest.
That is why instead of taking the lesser money and putting it in bonds, I will go with the annuity and have more at the end of the day. I don't need 5M in one year.
@billy blanks
In States that don't tax the lottery, you are more likely to walk away with 630K on a 1M prize.
The winner will get taxed at 37% which is the max tax bracket for now.
Good luck to all today 🙏
Just my opinion, but I think all lottery winnings no matter the amount should be 100% tax free.
All this talk about annuity vs cash value and tax rates on sed winnings makes me think of one word.
LIVERWURST!
There I got that off my chest.
The Shag has spoken .......
always one winner when jackpot high such a ripoff
Not sure if that is something that anyone has any control over. The fact that there are no winners for a number of drawings to get it to the higher jackpot doesn't make it all that surprising when there is only one
"they had or have a game where the prize stipulates "taxes paid" and you actually get the advertised amount. "
I remember seeing something about a game that did that, but it was a long time ago. If such a game exists now I haven't seen anything about it. I wish I'd checked (or remembered if I did check) to see if it really was a set amount after taxes, because the taxes could vary quite a bit depending on a winner's taxable income. Even if the prize was only 10k, that would add $3700 in federal taxes for some people.
"They don't now at least advertise the cash value in small print. You know what you're getting in for beforehand. "
I'd very grateful if somebody could find cash values on the NY lottery's website. Not only can I no find the cash values on the website, it's hard to find a disclaimer saying the advertised jackpot is an annuity and not what they'll actually give a winner. Using the search function on the website returns only one result for "annuity" and it's about how the Lotto jackpot is calculated. If other sites didn't post the information I'd have no idea how much take home I'm actually playing for.
"It's not false advertising but really sneaky and I don't like it."
If a private company advertised the annuity value while making it difficult or impossible to find the cash value or that the advertised prize is an annuity I think it would definitely be considered false advertising. Of course the lottery is a government operation, and the phrase "we've investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing" seems to fit.