A ticket sold in Illinois, USA, won the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot on Friday July 29. It was the only one able to match the five main numbers and the Mega Ball.
The lucky numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67 and the Mega Ball 14. With that being the case, it rules out the winner using birthdays and anniversaries for their selection.
It’s believed the jackpot winning ticket was bought at a Speedway petrol station and convenience store in the Des Plains suburb of Chicago. Whoever has sold the ticket will receive a bonus for doing so and that will be $500,000.
Pat McDonald is the lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. Speaking about the second largest Mega Millions win in history he said: “We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon.”
It was a great night for creating lottery millionaires. There were 26 second-tier winners from states all across the USA.
There had been 29 successive rollovers before the jackpot was finally won on Friday. The big question now is will we ever find out who the jackpot winner is?
That might not be the case with the winning ticket being sold in the state of Illinois. Anyone who wins a prize of at least $250,000 can ask to remain anonymous. A request has to be made on the Illinois Lottery Winner Claiming Form. There is no need to rush to claim the win. As long as the claim is made within a year of the drawing date, that’s fine.
If that request isn’t made then the identity of the winner, their home city and amount won will be revealed. Their telephone number and home address won’t be made public.
It’s likely the winner will get legal advice and it’ll be their attorney who collects the winnings without revealing the identity of their client.
Taking legal advice is going to be a priority for the Mega Millions winner. It may be a few weeks before the win is claimed. Keeping a low profile is always a good idea in this situation and letting as few people as possible know of your massive win.
Signing their winning ticket is also a high priority. That will prove the ticket belongs to you. Once that’s done, taking a photo of the ticket is a good idea and then hide it away in a safe place until it’s time to claim the winnings.
The win is the second highest Mega Millions jackpot. The largest remains the $1.5 billion won in October 2018.
The winner now has to decide how to accept their winnings. It can be paid over a 30-year annuity or a one-off cash payment of $780.5 million. If choosing the latter method, there would then be state and federal taxes to be paid. It’s estimated that would leave the winner with $433.7 million. The next draw is on Tuesday Aug 2 with a $20 million jackpot.
