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Tax coffers in Ohio have a lot to gain if an Ohioan wins that big Mega Millions jackpot tomorrow

By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Thursday, July 28, 2022

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The Mega Millions Jackpot is rising. It’s now more than $1.1 billion for Thursday night’s drawing. And lottery officials said that’s the second largest jackpot in the game’s history.

A Mega Millions ticket from Illinois — [Scott Olson | Getty Images]

The Ohio Lottery’s Danielle Frizzi-Babb said from Saturday to Tuesday, Ohio sold more than $13 million dollars worth of Mega Millions tickets. And the jackpot continues to increase as sales remain brisk. Right now, the winner of the jackpot could take a cash option worth $648.2 million.

“Your cash option will be $648.2 million dollars. There are taxes of course, don’t forget about that,” Frizzi-Babb said. “Anytime you claim any Ohio Lottery prize, there are taxes involved. But $648 million dollars, even after you pay the taxes, I think you can deal with that, right?”

Frizzi-Babb said those taxes are significant. If an Ohioan wins the jackpot, Frizzi-Babb explained the state will get a tax boost too.

“State taxes, 4% state tax on that cash option prize is $24 million dollars so if somebody wins big here, the state also wins too,” Frizzi-Babb said.

Frizzi-Babb said that’s on top of the profits which go toward education in Ohio. Earlier this month, the Ohio Lottery transferred a record $1.4 billion in profits to the Lottery Profits Education fund that supports K-12 education.

The Ohio Lottery has been recording record sales with $5.6 billion over the past year, beating the previous fiscal year year sales by $112 million.

There were nine winners Tuesday who came close to taking home the jackpot. And two of them were from Ohio. According to Mega Millions, nine tickets matched the first five numbers but didn’t match the Mega Ball. The game’s Megaplier feature was purchased for one of those tickets, raising its prize to $3 million. The rest of the winners got a million dollars.

That $3,000,000 dollar winning ticket was sold at a BellStore in St. Clairsville. Hirsch’s Marathon on West Bagley Road in Berea sold one of the $1,000,000 winning tickets. The winning numbers for Tuesday’s drawing were 7,9,60,63,66 and the Mega Ball was 15.

Of course, the chance of winning that big lottery jackpot is small. There is a 1 in 302,575,350 chance of winning it all in the Mega Millions Thursday.