2023-01-14 08:00:00
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Mega Millions lottery jackpot first landed in Maine, where an estimated $1.35 billion winning ticket was sold.
The numbers chosen in Friday night’s drawing were 30, 43, 45, 46, 61, with the Gold Mega Ball 14. The winning ticket was sold at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine, according to the State Lottery of Maine. The southern town of more than 6,500 people borders New Hampshire.
“There’s a lot of fuss at our small-town gas station this morning, I assure you,” said business owner Fred Cotreau. The first thing he did was see if he had bought the winning ticket, but he hadn’t.
“Hopefully the winner will be one of the residents and one of the regular customers,” added Cotreau. “It’s exciting to have sold it, but it’s even more exciting that it’s a single winner and I really hope it’s someone from here in town.”
The winner, whose name is still unknown, beat the meager 1 in 302.6 million odds that had helped swell the stock market following three months of no one hitting the jackpot.
“Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, who just won their first Mega Millions jackpot prize,” said Pat McDonald, director of Ohio Lotteries and the Mega Millions Consortium, in a statement issued early Saturday morning.
It is the second largest bag in the history of the lottery and the fourth that exceeds 1,000 million dollars. Mega Millions gave out its top prize of $1.53 billion for a ticket sold in South Carolina in October 2018.
The $1.35 billion prize goes to a winner who chooses annuities over 29 years. But almost all the winners opt for immediate cash payment, which for Friday’s draw was estimated at 724.6 million.
The prize for the next draw, scheduled for Tuesday, will drop to an estimated 20 million, with an immediate one-time payment option of 10.7 million.
Until Friday, 25 consecutive draws had been held without a jackpot winner. The raffle also left more than seven million tickets awarded in nine categories. Fourteen people matched five numbers, earning them a million-dollar prize, according to Mega Millions.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Rathke contributed to this report from Marshfield, Vermont.
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