Florida's $803 Million Mega Millions Winner Chooses Cash Option
The holder of the only jackpot winning ticket from the July 28, 2026 Mega Millions drawing has claimed the prize in Florida and selected the cash option.
The winning Quick Pick was sold at Wawa No. 5185 at 14510 State Road 70 East in Bradenton.
Mega Millions later confirmed that final sales pushed the jackpot to $803 million, making it the tenth largest Mega Millions jackpot at the time.
The winning numbers
The July 28 drawing produced 34, 48, 49, 59 and 70, with Mega Ball 12.
Only one ticket matched all six numbers.
The winning ticket was a Quick Pick purchased at the Bradenton Wawa.
The assigned multiplier on the winning play was not publicly verified and would not have changed the jackpot amount because the built in Mega Millions multiplier applies only to prizes other than the jackpot.
Why two different cash values appear in reporting
This claim has an unusual source issue that is worth explaining rather than hiding.
Mega Millions published a final jackpot of $803 million with a cash value of $345.5 million after final sales were counted.
Florida Lottery material tied to the earlier $800 million estimate used a cash figure of $344.2 million, and later local reporting based on Florida Lottery records continued to use that figure for the claimant.
The safest reading is that the $803 million and $345.5 million figures describe the final national jackpot economics, while the Florida claimant record used the earlier Florida figure.
The two amounts should not be silently treated as interchangeable.
The winner's identity was still confidential
As of September 23, 2026, the claimant's name had not been made public.
Florida law temporarily protects the name of a winner of at least $250,000 for 90 days after the claim date unless the winner waives that protection.
That is temporary confidentiality, not permanent anonymity.
The exact public claim date was not exposed on an accessible Florida Lottery claim page during the research. Local reporting cited August 28, 2026 based on Florida Lottery information, so that date should be treated as record based secondary reporting rather than a stand alone official claim announcement.
Because the privacy period depends on the actual claim date, the winner's public status should be rechecked before any later update to this article.
One of the largest Mega Millions jackpots
The $803 million prize was the third Mega Millions jackpot won during 2026.
It was also the tenth largest Mega Millions jackpot at the time.
Florida remains the state where the largest Mega Millions jackpot was won, a $1.602 billion prize from August 2023.
The July 2026 result therefore added another major Florida entry to the game's jackpot history.
Florida claim deadlines
Florida Mega Millions winners generally have 180 days from the drawing date to claim the prize.
A jackpot winner who wants the cash option has 60 days from the drawing date to make that election.
The Florida claimant selected cash according to lottery records reported by local media.
No verified winner statement or detailed personal story was available at the research cutoff, so claims about the winner's plans, reaction or identity would be speculation.
The current Mega Millions rules
Mega Millions now costs $5 per play.
Players choose five white balls from 1 through 70 and one Mega Ball from 1 through 24.
Each play includes a randomly assigned multiplier for prizes other than the jackpot.
The jackpot odds are 1 in 290,472,336.
The Florida winner beat those odds with one valid Quick Pick. That is a remarkable result, but it does not mean Quick Pick or any particular number pattern improves the probability of winning.