Andres Fernandez sells Mega Millions lottery tickets at a Chevron station in Oakland Park, Florida, on Friday, July 29. It was not the prize winning ticket. Photo / AP
Andres Fernandez sells Mega Millions lottery tickets at a Chevron station in Oakland Park, Florida, on Friday, July 29. It was not the prize winning ticket. Photo / AP
A single ticket bought in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a US$1.34 billion ($2.14bn) Mega Millions jackpot.
According to megamillions.com, there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines.
The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.
"We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history," Ohio lottery director Pat McDonald, the current lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery's website. "We're eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!"
People wait in line outside Blue Bird Liquor to purchase Mega Millions lottery tickets in Hawthorne, California last week. One ticket bought in Illinois took the jackpot. Photo / AP
The jackpot was the nation's third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game's six selected numbers since April 15. That's 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
Lottery officials had estimated the winning take at US$1.28 billion, but revised the number up to US$1.34 billion.
The total prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night's drawing was an estimated US$780.5 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 302.5 million.
According to the Illinois Lottery, the store that sold the ticket is a pretty big winner, too; it will receive half a million dollars just for selling the ticket. A clerk at the Speedway store who answered the phone but declined to give his name said the store has not been officially notified officially that it sold the winning ticket and that he learned about it from reporters calling for comment.
A sign displays the Mega Millions lottery jackpot in Detroit on Friday. One ticket has scooped the entire prize. Photo / AP
Mega Millions is played in 45 US states as well as Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands. The game is co-ordinated by state lotteries.
Illinois is among the states where winners of more than $250,000 can choose to not reveal their names, and Illinois Lottery spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said the vast majority of those winners do just that.
Even lottery officials may not know for a while who won because winners don't have to come forward straight away. And the winning ticket may have been bought by a group of people.
"We won't know whether it's an individual or it's a lottery pool until the winner comes forward to claim their prize," National Mega Millions spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb said.
Emily Irwin, managing director, Advice & Planning, at Wells Fargo's Wealth & Investment Management, said on Friday that the winner should consider keeping a low profile. This is necessary to avoid being inundated with requests for money.
"There are scammers and others who follow big winners," she said, admitting that sudden wealth can put a lottery winner in physical danger.
One expert who has worked with past lottery winners says the winners should avoid going to the lottery office altogether, instead sending an attorney or financial adviser to preserve their anonymity — if lottery officials allow.
"There are going to be people doing everything they can to figure out who the winner is," said Kim Kamin, who was a trusts and estates attorney for 17 years and now teaches estate planning at Northwestern University's law school.
There is also a question nobody wants to answer at that particular time: What happens to the money when you die?
