9
$1.128 billion. Mega Millions, March 2024
New Jersey, and a claim that took more than two months to appear.
$537.5mCash option.
Sold at a ShopRite liquor store in Neptune Township, New Jersey. The jackpot had rolled thirty times.
It was claimed in June by an entity rather than a named person. New Jersey allows a winner to remain anonymous, and beyond the claim date, almost nothing is public.
Note how often that pattern appears once you are looking for it. Of the ten biggest jackpots, the ones where we know the least about the winner are, without exception, the ones where things seem to have gone fine.
New Jersey also runs one of the more winner-friendly disclosure regimes in the country, having allowed anonymity since 2020. The contrast with its neighbours is stark enough that lottery lawyers openly discuss where a ticket was bought as a material fact about what happens next.