On Friday night, one lucky player won a staggering £1.09bn on the Mega Millions Jackpot.
Illinois Winner
The player believed to be from Illinois USA was the third biggest lottery winner in the country. The players matched all numbers 13, 36, 45, 57, 67, and the Mega ball 14 after the jackpot rolled over a massive 29 times.The lucky winner now chooses whether to claim the winnings over thirty annual payments or to accept a one-off cash payment resulting in a hugely inflated bank balance.The current lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium said, “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history. We are eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon.”
Third Largest Win
The latest jackpot win is the third largest win ever and grew so large due to no one claiming the prize since April 15th. The odds for winning the jackpot currently stand at 302.5 million.Along with the lucky ticketholder, the store where the ticket was purchased will receive half a million dollars for selling the ticket!A local Speedway Gas Station where the winning ticket is suspected of being sold had yet to be notified of the win after seeing the details in a local newspaper.The Mega Millions Jackpot is currently played in 45 states across America including Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands.In the state of Illinois players winning more than $250,000 can remain anonymous, and the vast majority of winners choose to do just that.
Remain Annonymous
Lottery officials are yet to know if the winning ticket was purchased by one person or a lottery syndicate, as of Saturday afternoon no one had come forward to claim the prize.A Wells Fargo spokeswoman Emily Irwin said the winner would do well to keep a low profile and resist going on a spending spree, a spree that people would know the winner could not afford.“This is not the time to start calling everybody you know, saying, ‘Hey, I have a big secret. Can you keep it?’”Winning such a large sum of money can often bring with it begging and continual requests for money. Also, scammers follow big lottery winners, so anonymity is key to the safety of the winner, ‘privacy equals safety’ said, Emily.