Two Jackpots Won Back-to-Back in the World's Biggest Lotteries
Monday January 20th 2025This was a very lucky weekend for lottery fans, as the jackpots for the two biggest lotteries in the US (and arguably, the World) were won within 24 hours of one another!
On Friday night, a player from Arizona successfully matched all six winning Mega Millions numbers to land a jackpot of $112 million, or $49.95 million upfront. The next day, a Powerball player in Oregon matched all six numbers as well, winning them an astonishing $328.5 million (or $146.4 million in cash).
The winning numbers were 8, 10, 37, 54, 69, a Mega Ball of 22, and a 3X Megaplier for Mega Millions on 1/17/2025. The following day, the Powerball numbers were 14, 31, 35, 64, 69, a Powerball of 23, and a 2X Power Play multiplier.
Cash or Annuity?
For each jackpot won, we gave two prize amounts in the section above. If you're not familiar with how it works, winners get to choose whether they want the full prize paid out as an "annuity", where they get a portion of it every year. Alternatively, they can opt for the cash lump sum, which is a much smaller (but still life-changing) prize – the important difference is, they can access it all at once.
There are pros and cons for either option. Some winners pick the annuity since they're worried they'll spend it all at once, or simply because it's more money at the end of the day. On the other hand, many winners feel more secure with the cash in the bank, and often, jackpot winners reckon they'll be able to invest the money for greater returns than the annuity would provide.
Rare Wins for AZ and OR
One thing about this weekend worth commenting on is that the winners hail from states that usually go underrepresented when it comes to national jackpot wins. Until last weekend, Arizona only had three Mega Millions jackpots to its name, compared to New York's 44, for example. Similarly, Oregon's seven Powerball jackpots isn't so impressive compared to Indiana's 39.
Lotteries are games of total chance, which means that the states with the most players are more likely to win more jackpots. This holds true; after all, the population of Arizona compared to New York is roughly 7,500,000 to 20,300,000, and more people = more potential lottery players.
The same can't be said for Indiana though, punching well above its weight for Powerball wins despite only having 2-3 million more residents than Oregon. Either the concentration of players is higher there, or it's just a lucky state!
What happens next?
The jackpots for Mega Millions and Powerball have been reset to the minimum amount of $20 million, and will continue to increase until they are won again. The winners have plenty of time to make their claims, and could well be contacting financial advisers at the time of writing.
Jackpot winners in Oregon cannot remain anonymous, so we'll find out more about them and their story eventually, but in Arizona, winners can opt to keep their names hidden, so there's no guarantee there. Exciting stuff!
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