It was a big week for a few Tucson-area lottery players.
One Mega Millions ticket sold on Tucsonโs southeast side for the Friday, Dec. 27 drawing is worth $1 million.
The winning ticket was purchased on the same day as the drawing at Fryโs Fuel Center on the corner of South Houghton and East Rita roads, Arizona Lottery officials say.
However, the ticket to seven-digit heaven is still burning a hole in the winnerโs pocket.
The $1 million Tucson ticket is one of five โMatch 5โ winning tickets purchased, each worth the same amount. The others are located in Missouri, Texas and two in California, according to the Mega Millions website.
A second Mega Millions ticket was purchased in Oro Valley and hit for $10,000 in the same drawing. That player, however, already claimed the prize.
One Mega Millions ticket sold on Tucsonโs southeast side for the Friday, Dec. 27 drawing is worth $1 million. And it has yet to be claimed.
The Mega Millions winners in Tucson are part of the Dec. 27 drawing that resulted in a California player hitting the jackpot, literally.
That ticket, sold at a Cottondale gas station, a small town of roughly 6,000 about 150 miles north of Sacramento, won an estimated $1.22 billion by matching all five white balls โ 3, 7, 37, 49 and 55, along with the gold Mega Ball 6 โ to hit the first Mega Millions jackpot since September, the Associated Press reported. The cash payout for that jackpot stands at an estimated $549.7 million.
On Thursday The U.S. Sun reported that California winner, with odds of about one in 12.6 million, hit just the fourth Mega Millions jackpot of 2024. As of Thursday, they had yet to claim their prize as well.
But this isnโt entirely out of the ordinary, according to Cydeni Carter with Arizona Lottery. On average, winners tend to claim their prizes within a few weeks to a few months after the draw, she said.
The office gives winners 180 days from the day the draw occurred to go claim their winnings, not the date it was purchased, so winners arenโt necessarily in any sort of rush โ if thatโs even imaginable.
What is surely unimaginable was the $14.6 million left unclaimed in 2019, after one Arizona player won โThe Pick Gameโ but missed their claim deadline.
Arizona Lottery is still waiting on two Mega Millions winnings to be claimed, both at $10,000 a piece, Carter said Friday. One is set to expire in just under three weeks, on Jan. 21, while the other expires in March.
For some, a New Yearโs resolution may be related to a new diet, a new workout plan, career goals or travel destinations. But for others, itโs something as simple as starting off the year on the right foot.
So, in what may be the single-best example of just that, as two Powerball players, one in the Tucson area and one in Phoenix, won big.
The Tucson player, winning $50,000, purchased their Powerball ticket on New Yearโs Day from a Chevron gas station on North Oracle Road, while the Phoenix Powerball player won $1 million from a ticket purchased Wednesday as well, according to the Arizona Republic.
