A $29.7 million Megabucks ticket sold in Massachusetts is the biggest jackpot in the game’s 44-year history

A Megabucks ticket sold in Holyoke matched all six numbers in Monday night's drawing and won a $29.7 million jackpot, the largest in the game's history. According to a statement from the Massachusetts State Lottery, reported by MassLive, the ticket was bought at King Mart at 494 Westfield Road, and the prize has a cash value of over $19.6 million.

The winning numbers for the September 7 drawing were 21, 28, 31, 34, 40, and 44. No winner had come forward as of Tuesday. Whoever holds the ticket has one year from the drawing to claim it. The jackpot resets to $500,000 for Wednesday.

A record that stood for 41 years

Megabucks launched in November 1982, and its biggest jackpot up until Monday was $21,714,520 on October 16, 1985, split among eight winning tickets. The lottery said that prize was, at the time, the third-largest lottery jackpot in the country. The largest ever won on a single ticket had been $16.35 million, sold in Ware for the September 10, 2022 drawing. Monday's ticket passes both records by a wide margin.

Six of the ten largest Megabucks jackpots came in the 1980s, and only two in the last 25 years. The lottery reworked the game in November 2023, doubling the ticket price from $1 to $2 to build bigger jackpots, cutting the number field from 49 to 44 to improve the odds at all prize levels, and adding a Monday drawing to Wednesday and Saturday. Players pick six numbers from 1 to 44 and win $4 for matching three, $200 for four, $5,000 for five, and the jackpot for all six, at odds of 1 in 7,059,052.

For a $2 in-state game, those are decent odds. The Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292,201,338, more than 40 times harder to hit, and its second prize alone is 1 in 11,688,054.

What $29.7 million comes to

The advertised figure is an annuity. The cash option of just over $19.6 million is about 66% of it, in line with the ratio on the state's large scratch tickets. The lottery withholds 24% for federal tax and 5% for Massachusetts tax at the claim.

The final bill is higher. Nearly all of the cash falls in the 37% federal bracket, so federal tax on $19.6 million comes to about $7.2 million under 2026 rates. Massachusetts adds a 4% surtax on income above roughly $1.1 million on top of its 5% rate, which brings the state's share to about $1.7 million. After all taxes, the winner would keep about $10.7 million of the cash option, or 36% of the number.

It was a large night in the state beyond Holyoke. MassLive reported at least 665 prizes of $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including 11 in Boston, eight in Springfield, and two in Worcester. The state's biggest claim of the year before this remained the $25 million Mega Money scratch ticket sold in Turners Falls, and a $15 million scratch ticket claimed in Springfield last week.

How we did this. The retailer, winning numbers, cash value, claim period, reset amount, game history, record list, prize amounts, odds, and the count of $600-plus prizes are from the Massachusetts State Lottery statement and Megabucks rules as reported by MassLive on September 8, 2026. Tax figures apply the 24% federal and 5% Massachusetts withholding rates to a $19.6 million cash option, then 2026 federal brackets for an unmarried filer with no other income and the Massachusetts 4% surtax. Powerball odds are the game's official figures.

Sources

MassLive: Nearly $30M lottery ticket sold in Western Mass. is largest prize won in Megabucks history

Massachusetts State Lottery: Winners