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The winning ticket to a billion-dollar jackpot, the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, was sold at a Michigan grocery store, state lottery officials said.
The winning numbers, which were drawn on Friday night, were chosen by a customer at a Kroger grocery store in Novi, a town of about 60,000 people 30 miles northwest of Detroit.
State lottery officials said the identity of the winner will not be known until the person contacts them.
The winner can choose to collect the prize through an upfront payment, then annual payments for 29 years, or receive a one-time cash payment of approximately $ 739 million. In this case, the winner would earn around $ 530 million, after tax, state lottery officials said.
The odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions. The winning Mega Millions lottery numbers were 4, 26, 42, 50, and 60, with a Mega Ball number of 24.
The numbers were chosen two days after the numbers were selected for a winning ticket in a $ 731 million Powerball jackpot, which was sold in Lonaconing, Md., A former unlucky mining town in the northwest corner. of State. The winning ticket was sold at Coney Market, a convenience store that sells subs and pizza in Lonaconing, a town of about 1,200 people in Allegany County, which has the most Covid-19 cases per capita in the state. About a quarter of Lonaconing’s population live below the poverty line, according to census data.
A spokeswoman for Kroger praised Michigan winner and Novi Mayor Bob Gatt said the news came a month after the city was named “the second most innovative city in the country” by the magazine. Contractor.
He described Novi as a fast-growing city that had once been a rural outpost of Detroit, but was now an auto manufacturing hub that attracted tech companies like Google.
Mr. Gatt said he was “ecstatic” for the winner. “I’d be better off if I had the winning ticket,” he says.
The jackpot was the second biggest prize in Mega Millions history.
In 2018, a person who chose to remain anonymous won $ 1.537 billion in South Carolina. This prize remains the largest lottery prize in the world to ever be awarded on a single ticket, according to Mega Millions.
The biggest lottery prize ever in the United States was a $ 1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016, according to the Associated Press. It was split between three ticket winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
A lingering mythology has it that big jackpot winners become cursed after their hits of good fortune. There are many stories of winners who, not equipped to manage their newfound wealth, continue to struggle with drugs or alcohol, broken relationships and insolvency.
While an influential 1978 study found that lottery winners were no happier than their neighbors or more optimistic about the future, other studies have countered the notion of the so-called curse of the lottery.
Studies suggest that the general psychological well-being of winners rebounds over time.
In 2018, a New Hampshire woman filed a lawsuit to keep her name from being released to the public after winning $ 560 million in the Powerball lottery.
Lawyers for the woman, who called herself Jane Doe in the lawsuit, said she wanted to use some of her winnings for charity “away from the glare and misfortune that has often fallen on the other” winners. Of the lottery.
A judge allowed him to remain anonymous.
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