One Winner Grabbed Mega Millions $1.6 Billion! Here's The Live Draw And Numbers [VIDEO]

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A single ticket bought in South Carolina has grabbed the record-breaking Mega Millions $1.6 Billion jackpot prize. The world is on the edge of their seat to find out who it could be, but that could be difficult as the state allows the winner to remain anonymous.

The winner will choose between a lump sum of approximately $687.7 million, or the annuity option of $40.5 million per year over 29 years. The prize money will be subject to an additional state tax.

The time period for claiming the prize is 180 days from the draw date for both Mega Millions and Powerball in South Carolina.

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Mega Millions is played in 44 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A further 36 second prizes of at least $1 million were awarded in 18 different states whose numbers matched five of the white balls. Two players won $3 million.

In total, more than 15.7 million players won a prize in the draw.

The estimated jackpot is the largest lottery prize ever. The jackpot has been growing since July, when a group of California office workers won $543 million.

The live draw with John Crow for the Mega Millions $1.6 Billion jackpot, Tuesday, October 23, 2018.

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The current jackpot beats the previous record, a $1.586 Billion jackpot for a Powerball drawing in 2016, said Seth Elkin (right), a spokesman for Mega Millions.

Winners can choose to remain anonymous when they win the lottery in these six U.S. states: Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina.

The jackpot had been rolling since July 24, when a California office pool of 11 co-workers shared a $543 million prize. Three other jackpots have been won this year – $451 million on January 5 (Florida), $533 million on March 30 (New Jersey), and $142 million on May 4 (Ohio). 

In addition to the jackpot winner, the sales frenzy produced a whopping 36 second prize tickets – each matching the five white balls drawn Tuesday night. Eight were in California, four each in Florida and New York, two each in Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia, and one each in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

The Texas winner and one of the Florida Match 5 winners included the optional Megaplier, so those two tickets are worth $3 million each. 

For matching four white balls plus the Mega Ball, 419 tickets won the game’s $10,000 third prize Tuesday night. Fifty-one of those are actually worth $30,000 each because they included the optional Megaplier.

In total, there were 15,750,013 winning tickets Tuesday night in addition to the jackpot winner. In this 26-draw jackpot run, beginning with the July 27 drawing there were more than 50.2 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 85 worth $1 million or more and the jackpot winner.