South Carolina waits for US lotto winner
SIMPSONVILLE: The number of billionaires in South Carolina may have doubled overnight after a lottery ticket sold in the state won the $US1.5 billion ($NZ2.3 billion) Mega Millions lottery jackpot.
The ticket, sold at the KC Mart in Simpsonville, matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night (US time), defying the one in 302.5 million odds to win the nearrecord prize.
The winner would only become an actual billionaire by taking the prize in annual instalments over three decades and hanging on to the bulk of the money.
The lucky person can also take an $US877.8 million lumpsum cash payment, which most winners choose to receive.
South Carolina Education Lottery officials know when and where the winning ticket was bought, but until someone presents the ticket, they will not know who bought it.
And the public may never find out.
South Carolina allowed lottery winners to remain anonymous after conducting a thorough investigation to confirm their identity, lottery chief operating officer Tony Cooper said.
The name of South Carolina’s last big winner — a $US399 million Powerball jackpot in September 2013 which at the time was the fourth biggest lottery prize in US history — has never been made public.
KC Mart owner CJ Patel, who has owned the store for three years, will also be a winner.
He gets a $US50,000 bonus, and said yesterday he would share part of it with his employees. — AP