Mega Millions: Illinois looking for $175,000 Mega Millions lottery winner
An Edwardsville, Illinois convenience store sold a Mega Millions lottery ticket that has made someone $175,000 richer.
The anonymous winner took second prize in the $130 million jackpot Tuesday. The winning numbers were 10, 23, 28, 39 and 51 and the Mega Ball was 5. The winner has up to a year to claim the prize.
The ticket was sold by Buchanan Amoco, 301 S. Buchanan St. The store owners, who will receive a 1 percent, or $1,750, retailer incentive bonus, declined to comment Wednesday. The date the ticket was sold is not being released.
Courtney Hill, spokesman for Illinois Lottery, said a person has a 1 in 43 chance of winning any prize in the Mega Millions, but a 1 in 135,145,920 chance of winning the jackpot.
Hill also said the identity of the winner is unknown until someone comes forward, and only the location where the winning ticket was purchased can be determined.
Another second-prize ticket was sold in the downtown Chicago area. Each winner had the correct five numbers in the lotto drawing.
The grand-prize-winning ticket was purchased in Washington, Ga., but the prize had not been claimed as of Wednesday afternoon.
In Illinois, there have been 29 grand-prize winners in Mega Millions, Hill said.
"We are the luckiest state within Mega Millions," Hill said. "We have more grand-prize winners than any other states within Mega Millions."
Mega Millions is a multistate lottery, played in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Mega Millions replaced The Big Game, which was once offered in all of the participating states except Washington, Ohio and Texas. The first drawing for Mega Millions was on May 17, 2002. The jackpot can go higher than $500 million, depending on the numbers drawn.
The Big Game held the North American record for the largest jackpot of $363 million.