Winner of largest Mega Millions jackpot in California history is identified
- Share via
The winner of the $1.2-billion lottery jackpot — a player who beat the odds by matching all six numbers drawn in the December Mega Millions — was named on Monday.
The winner, identified as Rosemary Casarotti by California lottery officials, who are required under state law to publicly identify the winners, purchased the winning ticket at Sunshine Food and Gas at 3505 Rhonda Road in Cottonwood on Dec. 27, officials said.
The lottery offered no biographical details about Casarotti.
The combination of numbers: 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and the Mega number 6, with the 3x “MegaPlier.”
A text from a co-worker teasing Michael Chavez about winning the lottery led him to check his ticket. And he actually had won.
Casarotti opted not to be present during Monday’s announcement. She chose to take the lump sum of her winnings, which will amount to more than $570 million.
The jackpot was California’s largest Mega Millions prize in history, according to the lottery. The odds of drawing all five of the winning numbers and the Mega number were at 1 out of 302.5 million.
Prior to the December win, the jackpot had been won only three times in 2024, the fewest wins in any single year since the game began in 2002.
At the time, the jackpot had been growing since Sept. 10, when a player won an $810-million prize from a ticket sold at a gas station in Texas.
The prior $6-billion-plus jackpots have all been won in different states — South Carolina in 2018, Michigan in 2021, Illinois in 2022, Maine and Florida in 2023 and New Jersey in March, according to the lottery. The game’s highest jackpot of any state at $1.6 billion was won in Florida in 2023.
Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
