$640-million jackpot split by three winners
WHAT IS $640 million divided by three? More math than jackpot winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland will ever have to do again.
Mega Millions announced on Saturday that winning tickets for Friday’s record-breaking lottery were bought in those states, after a drawing that saw Americans spend nearly $1.5 billion on tickets. The numbers drawn were 2, 4, 23, 38 and 46, and the “Mega Ball” was 23.
Reports on Saturday afternoon suggested that the prize total would be revised to as high as $656 million after all sales were tallied.
“AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!” the Illinois Lottery posted on Twitter on Saturday morning. The ticket had been bought at Red Bud Motomart in Red Bud, Illinois, the message said, about 40 miles from St. Louis.
Jenna Smith, a shift leader at the store, said on Saturday in a telephone interview that regulars had been filing in throughout the morning to celebrate and commiserate.
“It wasn’t me!” one woman shouted, to anyone who would listen, according to Smith.
“She plays the lottery every day,” she said.
Maryland’s winning ticket came from Baltimore County, according to the state’s lottery website. “This is truly remarkable and historic,” Stephen Martino, the state’s lottery director, said in a statement. “We can’t wait to greet the winner.”
In Kansas, officials said only that the ticket had come from the “northeast region” of the state. Winners in the state have the option of remaining anonymous, said Cara Sloan-ramos, a spokesperson for the state’s lottery.
In Illinois, a winner’s name, home city and prize total are made public “to assure other players that prizes are paid to winners,” according to the state’s lottery website.
Of course, stories abound about the perils of life after a windfall. There is the tale of Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia man who in 2002 won a $314.9 million jackpot but later said he regretted the payout after years of legal turmoil and personal tragedy.
In November 2009, a construction worker in New Jersey, Americo Lopes, hid a $38.5 million Mega Millions ticket from friends with whom he had been playing the lottery, as a team, for years. Less than three weeks ago, a jury in Union County ordered him to split his winnings.
Before Friday’s drawing, Mega Millions called the $640million prize “the largest lottery jackpot in world history,” surpassing a previous record of $390 million.
The lottery had announced that a single winner would have had the choice of two payment options: 26 annual pretax payments of $24.6 million, or a cash alternative of about $462 million.
Instead, a split will have to do, and by Saturday morning, officials in the three states were already preaching solidarity. Their Twitter accounts began distributing an image of the three states, side by side, above the Mega Millions logo and a simple message: “Sharing is caring.”