An American has won the jackpot at stake in the Mega Millions lottery: more than $1.3 billion or the equivalent in euros. The organizers announced this on Saturday, July 30, 2022. A month later, no one has come to collect the money.
(Map: Western France)
The long red brick building faces a row of gas pumps protected by an awning. This gas station is located on the outskirts of the small town of Des Plaines in the northern United States on a two lane four lane highway. It looks like many others and at first glance does not differ from the countless facilities of its kind that exist throughout the country. A huge jackpot of over 1.3 billion US dollars, converted into euros, was won here: the winning ticket of the recent Mega Millions lottery. The organizers announced it on Saturday, July 30, 2022. Only here it is: A month later, the winner has not yet come to claim the sum, reports the American television channel CNN on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.
Can the winner really lose their jackpot?
The gas station where the winning ticket was purchased. (Screenshot: Google Streetview)
In a way, the Mega Millions lottery is the American equivalent of the European EuroMillions. The sums at stake are enormous: the winner won the third largest draw of all time in the United States. Why such a large sum? No one had played the six winning numbers since April 15, 2022… The sum at stake has therefore grown over time, according to the Associated Press news agency. Until it exceeds a billion dollars.
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But is this sum lost? no Or better not yet. In the state of Illinois, where Des Plaines is located, a winner has up to one year to claim this amount. And it’s common for buyers of the gold ticket to wait a period of time before presenting themselves to collect their prize, the Lottery of Illinois said in a press release cited by CNN.
But that’s not all. Mega Millions winners have two options to choose from: collect this sum all at once or receive it in annual installments spread over 29 years. And they only have 60 days to make up their minds, says The Cincinnati Enquirer. In addition, this choice of rate is important. If the winner decides to bag it all at once, they’ll “only” get a little over $780 million. He will win the billion if he chooses the rate in 29 years.
$1.5 billion in 2018
For the sale of the golden ticket, the managers of this gas station must receive $500,000. (Screenshot: Google Streetview)
The lotteries of various US states coordinate this Mega Millions lottery. Each of them pays a certain amount into the till and if no one comes to collect their prize, each of the participating municipalities gets their stake back. Lotteries of this type are important in the United States: the profits from ticket sales are used to fund infrastructure development programs or go back into the budgets of education systems, according to business website Investopedia.
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The state of Illinois, for example, pumped $731 million into its public school budget in 2021 through ticket sales. And Americans play the lottery a lot: in 2019, they each spent an average of just over $1,000 on tickets, according to figures quoted by CNBC.
Three winning tickets have never been claimed in the history of gambling. The tickets were sold between 2002 and 2006 and the winning totals for each ticket ranged from $31 million for the lowest to $68 million for the highest, reports The Cincinnati Enquirer!
The operation is also lucrative for ticket sellers. Des Plaines gas station managers will receive $500,000 for selling the winning ticket, according to the Associated Press.