Posted on 07/30/2022 6:43:38 PM PDT by xp38
CHICAGO — Someone in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot.
According to megamillions.com, there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines.
The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.
“We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, the current Lead Director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery’s website. “We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!”
The jackpot was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
The $1.337 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $780.5 million. Earlier, Illinois Lottery officials had estimated the winning take at $1.28 billion.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
According to the Illinois Lottery, the store that sold the ticket is a pretty big winner, too; it will receive half a million dollars just for selling the ticket. A clerk at the Speedway store who answered the phone but declined to give his name, said the store has not been officially notified officially that it sold the winning ticket and that he learned about it from reporters calling for comment.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.
Illinois is among the states where winners of more than $250,000 can choose to not reveal their names and Camelot Illinois spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said the vast majority of those winners do just that.
Even lottery officials may not know for a while who won because winners don’t have to come forward straight away. And the winning ticket may have been bought by a group of people.
“We won’t know whether it’s an individual or its a lottery pool until the winner comes forward to claim their prize,” National Mega Millions spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb said.
Emily Irwin, managing director, Advice & Planning, at Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management, said Friday that the winner should consider keeping a low profile and resist going on an eyebrow-raising spending spree that everyone knows the winner cannot afford.
“This is not the time to start calling everybody you know, saying, ‘Hey, I have big secret. Can you keep it?”’ Irwin said.
This is necessary to avoid being inundated with requests for money.
“There are scammers and others who follow big winners,” she said, admitting that sudden wealth can put a lottery winner in physical danger.
“Privacy equals safety,” she said.
One thing the winner must do immediately is sign the ticket. That’s because if the ticket hasn’t been signed then it really isn’t yours. If the winner loses an unsigned ticket and another person finds it and signs it, the ticket now belongs to them.
Irwin suggests a step further to survive a legal battle over ownership.
“Take a Polaroid of you holding it and (put) it in a safe deposit box or somewhere else safe,” she said.
Pratik Patel, the head of Family Wealth Strategies at BMO Family Office in Chicago, said the winner should work with a financial planner to map out their future.
“I would run a Monte Carlo market simulation,” Patel said, explaining that this is an analysis of what a winner’s annual income might be and what the proceeds from various investments might be. “What you’re doing is using analytics to inform your spending.”
Frizzi-Babb agrees that talking to a financial planner is a good idea.
“I would suggest that you do that before you even set foot in a lottery office,” the national lottery spokeswoman said.
There is also a question nobody wants to answer at that particular time: What happens to the money when you die?
Irwin said don’t leave this unanswered; you must take action to ensure the bulk of your estate goes to your beneficiaries rather than the government.
Article content “You need a manager who specializes in this and understands this world,” said Patel. “Someone making $60,000 a year might need a certain type of professional manager and they may want to switch to someone who does ultra wealth.”
Whatever the winner does, it is important to do it slowly.
“You can absolutely indulge but let’s be smart about it,” Patel said. “It’s a lot of money but until you figure out what you can afford, there are still limitations.”
For example, he said, consider chartering a private jet before diving in and buying one.
“You may be interested in owning your favorite basketball team,” he warned, “but maybe that isn’t a good idea if it uses up all your money.”
Yes, Polaroids are still a thing. Millennials like them.
“Privacy equals safety,” she said.
True! Nobody wants BLM and Antifa to assault and batter the winner
Never bought a ticket. My family is safe.
I would rather 1,300 people won 1 million than one person winning that.
“$1.337 billion winner...
That’s why I won’t play. One winner for $1.337 billion.”
Only one winner with so many people playing. I am now totally convinced that the winner is a Deep Stater with nefarious foundations / trusts.
“Now, if they divided that into 1,337 x $1,000,000 prizes, I’d throw in a couple bucks for tickets.
Or...13,370 x $100,000 prizes...I’d buy a lot of tickets.”
The above amounts are pennies to the Deep State .
I agree with you. The jackpot can be large, but spread over multiple winners. No need for ONE winner.
Zelenskyyyy probably would like a donation from the winner. Only half of it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Funny you mention this. Was chatting with my liberal in-laws about this last night. I opined to them that I bet they would send a good amount of the winnings to “Ukraine”. They did not disappoint. Of course I was right. You would figure after 80 years on this tilt-a-whirl you would have learned something. But a daily does of the Today show, the View and the very upstanding and full of integrity, Lester Holt fills the cup with stupid. So sad to bear witness to this.
Some of the advice is unnecessary.
It is NOT necessary to have a totally preplanned scenario of how every dime is going to be spent or invested.
For the short term it is only important to get established an investment account, where the initial investments will be a broad mix of instruments. That is where the money can be intitally deposited. There is no need to wait many months losing investment earnings just because every long term detail and angle isn’t figured out yet.
From that initial account money can be moved as needed to conform to a long term plan.
If it were me, I’d have such an account set up immediately and availble for deposit of the lottery win as soon as the lottery could make the payment.
Spending many months with planning, before getting the payment, is a waste of time, and waste of investment earnings.
In 2015, my niece and nephews' pop group became world famous. He called me up that year and said "Billy! You'd be amazed by how many relatives we suddenly have!!"
I'm glad there are some nice towns in Illinois, normal people deserve them.
You might want to keep anything from Chicago out of your Towns including influence.
LOL...Y’all can tell I’m not a gambler! I’d lose my shirt.
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