24/7 Wall St.

The winner of the $450 million Mega Millions lottery has been announced. The single ticket was sold in Florida.

The official announcement:

It will be a very Happy New Year for a lucky Mega Millions ticket holder in Florida, as a single ticket sold in the state matched all six numbers drawn Friday night. The winning numbers for January 5 were the white balls 28, 30, 39, 59 and 70, plus the gold Mega Ball 10.

The jackpot winner will receive an estimated prize of $450 million ($281 million cash). It’s the fourth largest jackpot in the 15 year history of Mega Millions, and the first since a $42 million prize was shared by winners in Michigan and Rhode Island on October 13.

“Congratulations to Florida on their big jackpot win,” said Mega Millions Lead Director and Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica. ”This has been an exciting run for Mega Millions players and a great way to start off the new year! But it’s not over yet. We’re looking forward to Saturday’s $570 million Powerball jackpot. Good luck, everyone!”

Also in Friday night’s drawing, there were a total of eight Match 5 winning tickets – one each in California, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Virginia, and two each in Oklahoma and Texas. One Oklahoma and one Texas winning ticket included the optional Megaplier, so those two tickets are worth $3 million because the 3X Megaplier was drawn.

In total, 2,935,086 tickets won prizes Friday night at all levels, plus the jackpot winner. In this jackpot run, since October 13 there were more than 18.2 million winning tickets at all prize levels.

The jackpot resets to its new starting value of $40 million ($25 million cash) for the next drawing on Tuesday, January 9.

Some excellent advice for the winner from 24/7 Wall St.’s 12 Things Not to Do If You Ever Win the Lottery.