CA’s Fluke Lottery Drought of 2026 Ends With SoCal Super Lotto Jackpot Winner

California's lottery dry spell came to an end with a $32M winning Super Lotto jackpot Saturday, ending more than three months with no jackpot winners in the Golden State.

Though a modest jackpot compared to the string of billion-dollar jackpots doled out in California in recent years, Saturday's drawing put a stop to a rare fluke with no Powerball, Mega Millions or SuperLotto-winning jackpots in California in all of 2026.

Since late November 2025, no winning jackpot tickets had sold in California. Now, A lucky lottery player in Southern California put an end to the state's unlucky streak.

A ticket with all six numbers was purchased at a convenience store in Upland, in San Bernardino County, according to the California Lottery. The ticket is worth $32 million and was sold at Circle K at 681 East Foothill Blvd.

The lottery has been good to California, home to several of the largest jackpot winners ever.

As of Monday, Powerball's jackpot has risen to $249 million, Mega Millions sits at $473 million and SuperLotto Plus at $7 million. Patch spoke with the CA Lottery to see what, if anything, is different with the drawings so far this year.

"It's just the function of how lotteries work," CA Lottery's Daniel Kelly told Patch. "It's the fun part of it."

Despite the dry spell, California may seem luckier than the rest of the country, with recent billion-dollar winnings.

"California buys a lot of tickets. We have a lot of people," he said. "There's no mystery. The last billion-dollar jackpot was hit in Arkansas! Everyone has the same chance when it comes to the draw games."

Perceived good luck plays a factor in where people buy tickets, and some stores seem luckier than others. A Westlake Village liquor store, for example, Village Spirit Shoppe, sold a SuperLotto Plus ticket worth $50 million in October. That earned the store a $250,000 bonus for the big win.

Mega Millions drawings take place Tuesday and Friday at 8 p.m. ; SuperLotto Plus drawings take place on Saturday and Wednesday just before 8 p.m., and all entries must be received by 7:45 p.m. on those days; and Powerball drawings are Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, just before 8 p.m., with all ticket sales finalized by 7 p.m., according to the CA Lottery.

2025 was a banner year for statewide education fundraising and big prize winners.

We’ll take a walk down memory lane for some of the wildest winning tickets, both draw and Scratchers, throughout the last year.

JANUARY 2025:

Joel McCauley of Mountain View, CA, bought himself a $10 scratchers ticket at his local Liquor, Tobacco and More store on his way to work. He played, scanned it, and headed to work, according to the CA Lottery. “This time, he thought he’d won $7,500 but learned he’d won the top prize, $7.5 million!” they said. In January, he had no plans to quit his job, but he did plan to stop by his favorite store to pick whatever Scratchers ticket caught his eye.

Ashley Eugene of Sacramento was doing the laundry when she discovered her $20 Maximum Millions Scratchers game from her father as a Christmas gift. She didn’t scratch it right away.

“I waited about a week and a half and just happened to be doing laundry,” Eugene said. She sat down, scratched the ticket, and then the disbelief set in. “I kept looking at it and making sure it was correct,” Eugene said. “My dad happened to be there with me, so he looked at it and made sure it was correct. A couple of days later, we took it to the store, where they checked it and confirmed it was a winner. It was just a few days of being in disbelief.”

As unbelievable as it was, everyone was correct – the Maximum Millions Scratchers game her dad purchased from A1 Mart at 2550 W. El Camino Avenue in Sacramento turned out to be worth $5,000,000.”

FEBRUARY 2025:

California had a big Valentine’s winner, when a lucky Stater Bros. shopper in La Quinta bought a ticket matching all winning numbers to take home $1.49 million. The store earned a whopping $7,500 for making the sale.

MARCH 2025:

In March, a winning SuperLotto Plus ticket was sold in Cotati, worth $30 million, according to the CA Lottery. The game can only be played in the Golden State, and was sold at the 76 gas station and market on Gravenstein Highway, just off Highway 101 in Sonoma County. The shop received a $150,000 bonus.

Rohnert Park resident Guadalupe Guerro couldn’t believe his luck in March. While visiting his mother, he bought two $10 Scratchers tickets. “At first, I thought I had won $1,000 but my kid pointed out, ‘No! That’s a million!’”

Another Scratchers in March led San Jose resident Jesus Perez to think he hadn’t won anything. “I was feeling sad when I hadn’t won anything and decided to check it one last time,” he told the CA Lottery. “I thanked the Lord of Miracles when I scanned it with my phone to find out I’d won $1 million.”

APRIL 2025:

A San Luis Obispo unhoused man bought a $10 Scratchers ticket and earned himself $1 million, according to the CA Lottery in April. "It isn't unusual for him to try his luck on the Scratchers tickets," Sandy's Liquor and Deli part-owner Wilson Samaan told Patch. "He's a frequent shop visitor and has purchased Scratchers tickets many times before." A CA Lottery spokesperson confirmed to Patch that the winning Scratchers game was a $1 million prize on the Triple Red 777 ticket.

MAY 2025:

Who wants to be a millionaire? A person who purchased their Mega Millions ticket at a Chino gas station can answer that question, as they are now over $2 million richer. According to the CA Lottery, a ticket worth $2,201,910 was sold at a Chino Chevron Gas Station on Ramona Avenue. The ticket holder matched five numbers with a 3x multiplier. The base prize was $733,970, and the multiplayer catapulted the ticket's prize to over $2.2 million.

JUNE 2025:

Our favorite CA Lottery story for 2025 is the husband who enjoys tricking his wife, who won $5 million from a Maximum Millions Scratchers ticket. Still, his wife refused to take him seriously.
"He took their toddler out for breakfast and a walk, and on the way, stopped by the ARCO ampm on the corner of Newport and Menifee Road in Menifee to pick up two Maximum Millions Scratchers," they said. “When he asked her to look at the ticket and see if she saw what he did, she answered: “It’s $5 million. Could you please take the garbage out? I’m not in the mood right now.” He credits his faith for this win, saying:

“I’m not lucky. I’m blessed,” he said. “I’m going to invest my winnings, pay off my house, and put it all in a trust to work on creating some generational wealth for my children.”

JULY 2025:

A quick stop at a Southwest Riverside County grocery store on the 4th of July led to $5 million in prize money on a Cash Is King Scratchers game card. The store will get a $25,000 bonus.
Deborah Trullinger of Murrieta was out getting groceries at the Scott Road Albertsons, just off Interstate 215, where she bought the tickets, according to a California Lottery spokesperson. The Murrieta Albertsons will receive a Lottery bonus of $25,000 for the sale of this top prize-winning game card.

AUGUST 2025:

Tara Alisso bought a 2025 Scratchers ticket from Best Bev Liquor at 640 E. St. in Chula Vista, the California Lottery announced. The ticket was worth $7.5 million. Alisso did not disclose when she purchased the ticket or played the game, CA Lottery spokesperson Yvonne Vazquez told Patch.

SEPTEMBER 2025:

The Powerball climbed to $1.8 billion in September, and winners began filtering in. In California, dozens of players won between $24,000 and $1.56 million in that drawing. Two Powerball tickets sold in California are worth more than $1.56 million, according to the CA State Lottery. Two tickets containing five correct numbers were sold at the Circle K, 7850 Amador Valley Boulevard, Dublin and the Love's Travel Stop, 2000 East Tehachapi Boulevard, Tehachapi.

Another Powerball ticket won big, this one for $1.165 million in Ontario. The winning ticket for that drawing was sold at Ontario Liquor, 1403 E. 4th Street, and was one of four tickets sold in California worth $1,165,399. The others were sold at the Mobil, at 1616 Oak Park Boulevard in Pleasant Hill, a 7-Eleven, at 2705 E. Huntington Drive in Duarte and another 7-Eleven, at 1771 Clearlake Avenue in Milpitas.

OCTOBER:

The largest SuperLotto Plus jackpot to date was sold in Westlake Village. The winner woke up $50 million richer after matching all six numbers on the ticket bought at the Village Spirit Shoppe on Lakeview Canyon Road. That retailer receives $250,000 for selling the ticket.

"My family has owned the shop for 30 years!" said Mimi Shon, who mentioned she was looking forward to taking a nice vacation with the bonus. Plus, the store is once again adorned in a fresh "Millionaire Made Here" sign.

In that same drawing, two other tickets matched five numbers, missing only the Mega number, and were worth $20,938 each. One was the Albertsons at 720 3rd Avenue in Chula Vista, and the other winner picked up their ticket from Primm Valley Lotto off Interstate 15 in Nipton.

NOVEMBER:

A Sacramento liquor store sold a Powerball ticket worth $1.67 million. This was their second winning ticket sold, the first sold in 2024, when they made a millionaire on a Mega Millions ticket worth $1.7 million. Both were sold at the very lucky Land Park landmark, Lichine’s Liquor at 7107 S. Land Park Drive.

Four more people won $1 million each on a Scratchers game in November. One player bought his ticket at the 7-Eleven on the corner of Centinela Avenue and North Eucalyptus Avenue in Inglewood. Of his winnings, he said, “I wanted to be sure before I said anything. So I scanned it using the California Lottery app, and that’s when I saw the confirmation. It was real.” He plans to invest most of his winnings and hopes to set aside a portion for his family’s future. “As the Bible says, leave something for your children’s children.”

Other November 50X the Cash players celebrating million-dollar wins include Issa Bassil, whose winning ticket was purchased at Mike’s Cigarette, at 1473 Creston Road in Paso Robles. Rosalba Mendoza Salas also won from a ticket purchased at Corona Liquor at 2280 E. Main Street in Stockton, and Gildardo Enriquez DeLeon, with a winning Scratchers ticket from Mr. C’s Liquor at 1925 S. Pacific Avenue in San Pedro.

DECEMBER:

As the lottery streak continued in December, and Powerball jackpots rose to $1.25 billion on Dec. 17, making that the 14th billion-dollar Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot in U.S. History.

There was a massive Mega Millions second-place win in California in December. That ticket, sold by CVS at the corner of Jasmine Avenue and the Coast Highway in Corona Del Mar, was worth a whopping $5,104,961. The winning numbers were 34, 38, 42, 44, 69, and the Mega Ball number of 8.

How does the Draw Games work?

According to the CA Lottery, in California, prizes are paid on a pari-mutuel basis, which means a winning Powerball, SuperLotto Plus, or Mega Millions ticket – even in a second-place or lower prize tier – can sometimes earn a much larger prize.

Who else wins when you play?

Big Powerball, SuperLotto Plus and Mega Millions draw prizes fuel ticket sales, which in turn create funds for public schools across the state, according to the CA Lottery.

“Eighty cents from every Powerball ticket and approximately two dollars from every Mega Millions game sold goes to help fund public education programs from kindergarten to university. Since the last time the Powerball jackpot was won in September, over $70 million has been generated for public schools in California from Powerball sales alone,” they said. “These funds support classroom resources, technology upgrades, and career training. The California Lottery provides an interactive map on its website at www.calottery.com/who-benefits, along with current financial reports.

Related:

CA Lottery Winners Making Billions, Losing Millions In 2024
CA's Top Lottery Winners In 2023: The Making Of Billionaires
California Lottery 12 Top New Millionaires 2021: Winning Numbers, Where Tickets Were Sold
CA's 2022 Lottery Winners: A Mystery Billionaire And 100+ Millionaires

Patch Staffer Kristina Houck contributed to this report.