Only one ticket matched all six numbers in the US Mega Millions lottery
for a jackpot of $1.537 billion, just short of a world record, an
official said on Wednesday.Get more news about 电子游戏包网,you can vist nb68.com
The ticket was sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina, at a KC Mart
convenience store, the city's Mayor Janice Curtis said in a telephone
interview on Wednesday.
The town of 22,000, about 14 miles from Greenville, was abuzz as
people clamored to learn more about the winner, but in South Carolina,
the person who hit the jackpot can opt to remain anonymous.
The buyer of the ticket beat the odds of 1 in 303 million to win the
Mega Millions drawing for one of the largest jackpots in US history.The
jaw-dropping jackpot failed to break the record for lottery winnings,
held by the $1.586 billion Powerball prize in January 2016.
The Powerball lottery also had a huge prize at stake on Wednesday
when 3, 21, 45, 53, 56, and a Powerball of 22 were drawn. The $620
million jackpot made it the fifth-largest in U.S. history. The lump sum
cash payout is estimated at $354.3 million.
Before the Mega Millions drawing, lottery officials had been
reporting an expected $1.6 billion jackpot, based on estimates tied to
historical patterns, lottery spokeswoman Carole Bober Gentry said on
Wednesday.
After the drawing, lottery officials rolled back the jackpot total
to $1.537 billion, based on actual ticket sales.There are few precedents
for a jackpot this size. Typically, about 70 percent of sales occur on
the drawing day, so forecasting precise numbers in advance can be
difficult," Gentry said in a statement.
For the winner, options include an immediate cash payment of $877.8
million, or the $1.537 billion prize paid out over 29 years.There were
36 second-tier winners, those who picked five winning numbers but did
not match the Mega Ball. Most were rewarded with a $1 million prize, but
two of them, in Florida and Texas, added a Megaplier option, tripling
their winnings to $3 million.In the four days leading up to the drawing,
about 370 million of the $2 Mega Millions tickets were sold in 44 U.S.
states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.
