Hudson County Player Wins $3.28 Million Jersey Cash 5 Jackpot
A New Jersey lottery player is waking up to life-changing news after hitting the $3,280,313 Jersey Cash 5 jackpot in the May 6, 2026 drawing. The winning ticket was sold at a convenience store in Secaucus, making it one of the largest lottery wins in Hudson County in recent memory — and one of the top Jersey Cash 5 prizes of the year.
According to Fox5NY, the NJ Lottery confirmed the jackpot win on May 7, 2026, setting off a wave of local coverage and the inevitable question every New Jersey player asks after a big jackpot drops: where was that ticket sold, and could it have been mine?
This win isn't just a feel-good story. It's a snapshot of how New Jersey's daily lottery ecosystem operates at full speed — multiple games, multiple winners, and a reset jackpot already climbing toward the next big payout.
The Winning Numbers: What Was Drawn on May 6, 2026
The Jersey Cash 5 drawing on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 produced the following winning combination:
- Main numbers: 02, 18, 19, 31, 42
- Bullseye number: 42
- XTRA number: 04
Matching all five numbers is required to claim the jackpot, and only one ticket in the entire state hit that combination. That ticket — worth $3,280,313 — was sold at the Mirali Corporation (Te-Amo store) located at 1299 Paterson Plank Road in Secaucus, Hudson County. As per standard NJ Lottery rules, the retailer receives a $2,000 bonus for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.
As AOL News reported, the win drew immediate attention because of its size relative to what Jersey Cash 5 typically pays out — the jackpot had been accumulating across multiple rollovers before finally landing in Secaucus.
More Than Just the Jackpot: Secondary Winners and the XTRA Multiplier
Big jackpot wins tend to overshadow the broader winner landscape, but the May 6 drawing produced dozens of secondary prizes worth noting. 65 players across New Jersey matched four out of five numbers plus the Bullseye, each winning $500. Of those 65 players, 17 had purchased the XTRA option — a multiplier add-on — and saw their $500 prizes jump to $2,000 each.
The XTRA feature is a detail many casual players overlook. For a small additional cost per ticket, XTRA can multiply non-jackpot prizes, and those 17 players who paid for the upgrade walked away with four times the base prize. It's a quiet reminder that lottery strategy — to whatever extent strategy applies — includes decisions about which add-ons are worth the extra spend.
The Jersey Cash 5 jackpot has now reset to its base level of $150,000, which means the drawing cycle begins fresh. Given the pace at which the jackpot climbed to $3.28 million, players who enjoy Jersey Cash 5 should treat the reset as an entry point rather than a reason to disengage.
The Same Week: Bergen County Player Wins $172,485 in Quick Draw Progressive
The Jersey Cash 5 win wasn't the only significant New Jersey lottery payout during this stretch. On May 7, 2026 — the same day the Secaucus jackpot was announced — a Bergen County player won $172,485 playing Quick Draw Progressive.
Quick Draw is a fast-paced keno-style game that draws numbers every four minutes, and the Progressive jackpot component adds a secondary prize pool that grows until it's hit. Following the Bergen County win, the current Quick Draw Progressive jackpot is estimated at $404,000 — already substantial and building toward its next payout.
Two major payouts in back-to-back days illustrates a point that sometimes gets lost in the excitement around individual jackpots: New Jersey's lottery system produces significant winners consistently, across multiple game formats. The headline-grabbing wins exist alongside a constant stream of five- and six-figure prizes being distributed throughout the state.
Where the 2026 Jersey Cash 5 Season Stands
To put the Secaucus win in context, it's helpful to look at where Jersey Cash 5 jackpots have landed in 2026. The largest Jersey Cash 5 jackpot of the year was won on March 10, 2026, when a Mercer County ticket claimed $3,402,434 — edging out the May 6 win by about $122,000.
That means within a span of roughly two months, two Jersey Cash 5 jackpots have exceeded $3.2 million. For a daily draw game with a $1 base ticket price, that kind of jackpot magnitude is notable. Jersey Cash 5 doesn't carry the astronomical multi-hundred-million-dollar prizes of Powerball or Mega Millions, but its odds are considerably better, and its jackpots — when they build — can reach genuine life-changing territory for most households.
The game's structure, with daily drawings and a jackpot that resets and climbs until someone wins, creates the conditions for these periodic large payouts. Players who follow the game know that a $150,000 starting jackpot that goes weeks without a winner can quietly grow into a multi-million-dollar prize.
If you're interested in how regional lottery wins play out in other states, the Hoosier Lottery's recent $150K win and Beneficiary Month 2026 offers a useful comparison of how Midwest lottery systems handle major payouts and public benefit allocations.
What This Means: The Real Story Behind a $3.28M Win
Lottery jackpot stories follow a familiar rhythm: someone wins, the ticket location is announced, the retailer gets a small bonus, and the cycle resets. But the more interesting analysis is what these wins reveal about the lottery's role in the broader New Jersey economy and gaming culture.
New Jersey runs one of the more aggressive state lottery operations in the country. The state offers daily draw games, fast-play instant games, keno, and participates in both Powerball and Mega Millions. The lottery generated over $3.5 billion in sales in recent fiscal years, with a substantial portion directed to state education funding. Every jackpot win — including this $3.28 million prize — is part of a system that simultaneously redistributes wealth to individual winners while channeling revenue toward public programs.
The Secaucus win landing at a Te-Amo store on Paterson Plank Road is also quietly representative of how lottery sales are distributed. New Jersey's winning tickets don't disproportionately come from affluent suburban zip codes or from high-traffic tourist corridors. They come from convenience stores, gas stations, and neighborhood shops spread across the state's diverse communities. Hudson County — densely populated, economically diverse, with a high proportion of working-class and immigrant households — is exactly the kind of place where lottery participation is high and a multi-million-dollar win carries outsized significance.
The $2,000 retailer bonus for selling a jackpot-winning ticket is worth a brief mention, too. For a small business like a convenience store, $2,000 is meaningful. It's also a designed incentive — the NJ Lottery rewards retailers for selling winning tickets, which encourages store owners to actively promote lottery products and maintain reliable ticket-scanning infrastructure.
How Jersey Cash 5 Works: A Quick Breakdown for New Players
Jersey Cash 5 is one of New Jersey's most straightforward daily draw games. Here's the structure for anyone coming to the game fresh:
- Tickets cost $1 each for the base game.
- Players select (or quick-pick) five numbers from 1 to 45.
- Drawings are held every day, seven days a week.
- The Bullseye add-on ($1 extra) selects one number from 1 to 45; matching the Bullseye on top of your regular numbers boosts prizes significantly.
- The XTRA add-on ($1 extra) multiplies non-jackpot prizes by the XTRA number drawn that evening.
- The jackpot starts at $150,000 and rolls over each night no one wins, building until it's claimed.
- Odds of winning the jackpot are approximately 1 in 962,598 — far better than Powerball (1 in 292 million) or Mega Millions (1 in 302 million).
The odds difference is significant. While no lottery is a rational investment, Jersey Cash 5's odds make it a game where multi-million-dollar jackpots feel plausible rather than purely theoretical — which is a meaningful psychological distinction for regular players.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Jersey Cash 5 Win
Who won the $3.28 million Jersey Cash 5 jackpot?
The NJ Lottery has announced that the winning ticket was sold at the Mirali Corporation (Te-Amo store) at 1299 Paterson Plank Road in Secaucus, Hudson County. The identity of the ticket holder has not been publicly disclosed, which is standard procedure in New Jersey — the state does not require lottery winners to be publicly identified.
What were the winning numbers for the May 6, 2026 Jersey Cash 5 drawing?
The winning numbers were 02, 18, 19, 31, and 42. The Bullseye number was 42, and the XTRA number was 04. All five main numbers must be matched to win the jackpot.
What is the Jersey Cash 5 jackpot now?
Following the May 6 win, the Jersey Cash 5 jackpot has reset to its base amount of $150,000. It will grow with each drawing that passes without a jackpot winner.
Does the store that sold the winning ticket get a reward?
Yes. Under NJ Lottery rules, retailers that sell jackpot-winning tickets receive a $2,000 bonus. The Te-Amo store in Secaucus is eligible for that payment.
What is the largest Jersey Cash 5 jackpot ever won in New Jersey?
The largest Jersey Cash 5 jackpot of 2026 to date was $3,402,434, won by a Mercer County ticket on March 10, 2026 — slightly larger than the May 6 Secaucus win. Historical all-time records for the game extend further back, but 2026 has already seen two jackpots above $3.2 million within a two-month window.
Can I still claim a prize if I matched four numbers and the Bullseye?
Yes. In the May 6 drawing, 65 players matched four of five numbers plus the Bullseye, each winning $500. Players who added the XTRA option and drew the multiplier saw that prize increase to $2,000. Prize claims can be made through the NJ Lottery's standard claims process depending on prize amount.
Conclusion: What Comes Next for New Jersey Lottery Players
The $3,280,313 Jersey Cash 5 jackpot won in Secaucus on May 6, 2026 is a legitimate milestone — the second jackpot of the year to exceed $3.2 million in a game that millions of New Jersey residents play daily. The win validates what regular players already understand: Jersey Cash 5's jackpots, while modest compared to national mega-games, can grow to genuinely significant sums with the right combination of time and unlucky rollovers.
With the jackpot reset at $150,000 and the Quick Draw Progressive already sitting at an estimated $404,000 following the Bergen County win, New Jersey's lottery ecosystem is already building toward its next major payout. Whether that comes in days or months depends on how many players match five numbers — and whether fortune happens to land on a ticket in Hudson County, Bergen County, or anywhere else in the state.
For players keeping an eye on the full picture of state lottery activity around the country, stories like Indiana's Hoosier Lottery wins and beneficiary reporting offer useful context for how lottery systems balance player payouts with public funding obligations — a dynamic that's just as relevant in New Jersey.
The winner in Secaucus likely doesn't know yet what the process ahead looks like: the prize claim, the tax implications, and the financial decisions that come with a sudden seven-figure windfall. What they do know is that someone in their community held the right five numbers on a Wednesday night in May — and that the lottery cycle, as always, continues.
