North Texas Resident Wins $1M Lottery Prize, But Misses the Jackpot

Have you ever heard the expression "when I win the lottery, I'll do this or that?" Maybe I just made that up, but what I can tell you is that there are MANY things I would do if I won the lottery.

Everybody has their own dream purchase or dream vacation, but one North Texas resident can finally have their dreams come true after a winning ticket recently changed their lives.

According to the Texas Lottery website, the prize amount for every winning ticket corresponds to however many numbers on their scratch-off matches the winning draw.

The Mega Millions drawing took place last Friday, and the ticket with all five correct numbers was purchased at a 7-Eleven in Arlington, TX. This lucky winner, who (rightly-so) has remained anonymous, won the coveted $1 million prize.

This is great and all, but a million dollars is not even the max amount. See, in order for a winner to obtain the jackpot with an unbelievable $1.2 billion prize attached, they needed to have all five matching numbers ALONG WITH the correct bonus mega ball number.

So, there are technically six total numbers you need in order to win the Texas lottery jackpot. Unfortunately for Texas, the winner of this massive fortune was out of state. The winning numbers from Friday's drawing were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55, and the mega ball number: 6.

Since the jackpot was already won, the drawing on New Year's Eve came with a smaller jackpot value of $20 million. If the winner prefers a cash-up-front option, it's actually $9 million (oh boo-hoo, just a fraction of that would still change my life).

Odds of Winning the Lottery

If you're curious like me, the odds of winning the Texas lottery are as follows:

• 1 in 75 chance of matching 3 numbers
• 1 in 1,526 chance of matching 4 numbers
• 1 in 89,678 chance of matching 5 numbers
• 1 in 25,827,165 in scoring the jackpot by matching all six numbers