Mega Millions ramps up to $820M as questions linger over mystery Powerball winner
Mega Millions is living up to its name.
If someone ends up with the grand prize winning ticket for Tuesday’s drawing, they could pocket a cool $820 million.
The looming jackpot is the fifth largest in the history of the game, Mega Millions officials said Saturday.
The odds of winning are a very long shot –1 in 302.6 million, but tickets are being snapped up.
Winners have the option of a lump sum payment, which in this case would net them $422 million, or they can choose to take the full jackpot paid out in annuities over 29 years.
Most grand prize winners choose the cash payout option.
The drawing on Friday resulted in eight tickets matching five white balls for a $1 million prize.
Two each were sold in Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina, with one in California and another in Michigan, Mega Millions said.
A winning Powerball ticket worth $1.08 billion was sold at this small downtown LA store on Friday owned by the Herrera family. AP
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Questions remain over the identity of the person who scored the winning Powerball ticket worth about $1.08 billion at a small neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday.
The store owners originally said the winner was an older woman who came in the store and was captured on video indicating she had won.
This woman ran into the small LA store where the billion-dollar Powerball ticket was sold last Friday and indicated she was the winner. Independent
The woman shocked the assembled crowd as well as the store workers, dropped to her knees crying “God bless you” and hugging staff, then ran off.
However, she then ran off without showing a ticket or giving her name, according to footage from KNX News.
It remains unclear whether she truly is the winner.
In video clips posted on social media, the woman ran from the store crying: “I’m scared right now, I’m so scared.”
Store owner Nabor Herrera told KCAL he thought the woman was faking but then said his daughter thought the woman’s mother might be the winner.
Source: New York Post
