(KTLA) — It’s not unheard of for there to be two (or three) tickets that win a Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot. Usually, those split tickets are sold in separate states, like the $502 million Mega Millions jackpot hit by tickets in California and Florida last year.
But the most recent Mega Millions jackpot win, a $394 million prize hit over the weekend, was even more uncommon.
A Chevron station in Encino, California, sold not one, but two winning tickets that matched all six numbers in Friday night’s drawing including the gold Mega Ball, according to a press release from lottery officials.
So how did this happen?
“We won’t know exactly how this happened until the prize is claimed,” Carolyn Becker, deputy director of public affairs for the California Lottery said in a press release. “There are any number of explanations; perhaps one person wanted to try their luck on two different rows for whatever reason, or maybe a couple of buddies wanted to try their chances with the same exact numbers.”
It could be a while before we know exactly how it played out. The California Lottery won’t even confirm whether the tickets were purchased by the same player. That information is used as part of the investigation that’s about to ensue to find the real winner (or winners).
In California, it can take weeks or even months for those claiming to be the winner to be confirmed, Becker previously told Nexstar. That process involves lottery staff, which includes security and law enforcement officials, who work to determine whether the claimant is a winner or a scammer.
“We have a very thorough process internally, at least here in California, to vet big winners,” Becker explained. “We don’t even call them winners until they’re cleared by that security review.”
This isn’t the first time this has happened in California. In December 2020, a 7-Eleven in Vallejo sold two winning tickets for SuperLotto Plus, according to a press release. To make it even more surreal, the prize was claimed by two different players with the same last name.
Regardless of whether it was one player playing the same numbers or two totally unrelated players, they’ll be claiming the fourth-largest Mega Millions jackpot of the year. The prize had grown to $394 million – which equates to about $188.6 million in cash – since it was last won in Texas by a South Dakota-based trust on Oct. 6, Mega Millions said.
This year has already “highly unusual” for Mega Millions, as it is the first time in a decade that 10 jackpots have been won in the same calendar year.
The year started off with a bang after a Maine player won $1.348 billion on Jan. 13. Later on, the new game record was set in August when someone in Florida won a whopping $1.6 billion jackpot.
The Mega Millions jackpot for the next drawing – scheduled for Tuesday – now resets to its current starting value of $20 million, lottery officials said.
Tickets for the $2 game are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
