Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP / Getty Images
The 29 July, one very lucky person hit the Mega Millions jackpot and got $1,337 billion dollars.
The ticket was sold at a Speedway in Des Plaines, Illinois, about 20 miles north of Chicago. In fact , the original jackpot was $1,77 million, but was increased due to the windfall of the sale of tickets.
The winning numbers of the drawing were: 13, 36, 45, 60, 67, and the 14, like the Mega Ball.
This colossal sum represents the second largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
In two decades, was only surpassed by the $1 ticket,537 million dollars that was purchased at the KC Mart convenience store on 24 October 2018 in Simpsonville, South Carolina.
The biggest jackpot of all time was the $1 Powerball,586 million dollars raffled at 2016.
So far, no one has claimed their winnings. “For a prize of this magnitude, it is not unusual for the winner to take a while to claim it”, said the Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays in a statement. “I’m sure they are going through a variety of emotions.”
Believe it or not, millions of dollars in lottery prizes have not been claimed. It is said that every year about $2 is not collected,000 millions of dollars in lottery prizes.
Most of them have top prizes of $1 or up to $5. However, consider the $77 million dollars that were never claimed for the note Powerball winner that was sold in Georgia in 2011 or the $68 million dollars unclaimed Mega Millions that was sold in New York for the 24 from December to 2002. Then there was the $24.7 million Powerball ticket. of dollars that nobody validated in Indiana in 2002.
While it is too late for the aforementioned big ticket winners to collect, the person who bought that lucky Mega Millions ticket at Des Plaines Speedway has 12 months from the draw date to claim your prize, even if you only have 60 days to decide if they accept annual payments or cash.
At the end of the day, lotteries like the one in Illinois provide a huge win for the state, providing key funding for public primary and secondary schools.
Since it began in 1985, the Mega Millions lottery has raised $21 one billion dollars to finance education in the state.
“We are anxious to know who won and we hope to congratulate the winner soon!”, he told the Parade.com site, Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, who currently serves as Senior Director of the Mega Millions Consortium.
“Even better, this exciting race of the jackpot has had a significant positive impact on the revenue for good causes raised by our lotteries.”
¿ What happens to unclaimed lottery tickets?
The jackpot winning ticket was sold at a Speedway in Des Plaines, Illinois, northwest of Chicago.
So far, the winner has not been presented yet.
However, according to the lottery rules in Illinois, the winner has 12 months from the draw date to claim your winnings.
However, they only have 60 days from the date of the drawing to choose the option of cash or annual payments.
In Illinois, prize winners of $250,000 dollars or more may choose to remain anonymous.
If no one claims the Mega Millions jackpot, who will get the money?
“It is too early for this jackpot be considered unclaimed,” said Megan Powers, Director of Communications for the Illinois Lottery.
“However, in Illinois, any unclaimed prize after 12 months is returned to the Common School Fund for a support education from kindergarten through twelfth grade.”