At least one winning ticket in $636 million Mega Millions drawing bought in California

A $636 million jackpot — the second-biggest lottery payout in U.S. history — will be going to at least one winner after someone in San Jose, Calif., picked all six winning Mega Millions numbers Tuesday night, California lottery officials said.

That was the only winning ticket sold in California, the lottery told NBC News. Other winners who might emerge later in the evening would divide the loot with the California winner, who wasn't identified. 

The California ticket — 8, 14, 17, 20 and 39, with the Mega Ball 7 — was bought at a gift shop in San Jose, lottery officials said.

Had there again been no winners Tuesday, the jackpot would have rolled over, likely approaching or even topping the once-unthinkable $1 billion barrier for Friday's drawing, Mega Millions officials have said.

There were 259 million possible number combinations that could land a jackpot. Paula Otto, Virginia's lottery director, said that by the drawing at 11 p.m. ET Tuesday, 65 percent to 75 percent of the possible combinations would have been covered.

But "you don't know you have a winner unless it's 100 percent covered," Otto said.

"We've never had a jackpot this high the week before Christmas," she said. "You like to see winners and you like to see big jackpots. I leave it in the hands of the bouncing balls."

The $636 million — before taxes — is on the table only if a winner or winners is willing to spread the payments out over 30 years. If it's taken all at once, it's worth "only" $341 million.