Hacienda Heights store sells Mega Millions ticket worth almost $4 million as jackpot grows

Of 842,933 winning lottery tickets sold so far in this round of California’s Mega Millions lottery, only one included five matching numbers.

That ticket, sold at Park’s Liquor on 7th Avenue in Hacienda Heights, is worth $3.97 million, and its owner has yet to claim the prize, according to the California Lottery. An individual player’s odds of matching this payout were 1 in 12.6 million. Meanwhile, the grand prize has grown to $1.35 billion.

The ticket-holder came just one matching number — the “mega” — away from winning $1.1 billion in Tuesday’s draw, earning the biggest possible prize besides the jackpot.

Twenty-nine tickets in the state qualified for a prize of $7,127 with four matching numbers and the “mega.” The odds of winning that much were about 1 in 1 million.

Friday’s Mega Millions drawing will take place at 8 p.m. with the $1.35-billion jackpot offered as an annuity over three decades. The cash payout — or “lump sum” — option will be just over $700 million.

About a quarter of the jackpot winnings would immediately be taxed by the federal government, and further taxes would be collected on earnings off of the winnings, such as investments.

A player’s odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 300 million. A 2008 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed an individual’s odds of being hospitalized in an accident involving a bathroom sink at around 1 in 10,000. Having it happen twice in a year implies odds of 1 in 100 million.

Winning the jackpot, then, is significantly less likely than being hospitalized by a bathroom sink twice in a year.