Mystery ticket wins $1.9 billion lotto prize

A mystery winner from the US state of Illinois snapped up the eye-watering jackpot on Saturday local time, in the early morning hours of Sunday for Australians.

Authorities are now appealing for the winner to come forward. Their ticket had the numbers 13-36-45-57-67, and a mega ball number of 14.

It’s the second largest individual prize to ever be offered by the lotto in the US, according to Mega Millions, across the company’s 20-year history. The only ticket that topped that amount was in 2018, when somebody won $US1.537 billion in South Carolina.

The windfall has grown so large because for that last 29 consecutive draws, nobody has picked the right numbers, causing the jackpot to climb.

Lottery officials initially predicted the winning take to be $US1.28 billion, but revised the number up to $US1.337 billion on Saturday.

The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 302.5 million.

Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald said in a statement, “Congratulations to the Illinois Lottery for selling the winning ticket for the $US1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot. We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history. We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon.”

Luckily, under Illinois state rules, lottery winners of more than $US250,000 can choose to remain anonymous.

However that’s not the case in each state, and as Mega Millions is a national competition, it means other winners have had to reveal their identities in order to claim their prizes.

Meanwhile, in Australia, winners are automatically made anonymous.

In February, a financial expert warned that lottery money went a lot faster than you would expect.

“Most lotto winners actually go broke within a couple of years,” Adele Martin, a certified financial planner, told news.com.au earlier this year.

“And that’s because, you know, if you’re not good at managing $100,000, you aren’t going to magically be better at managing $120 million. It’s the same principles, just more zeros.”

There have been several horror stories of lottery wins.

Amy McCauley was a bus driver in New York who won $US15 million ($20 million) in the 1990s.

After the win, she was besieged by friends and family members asking for money. In the end, she fell out with two of her brothers, most of her so-called friends, and moved to a town when no one knew her.

Jane Park won £1 million ($1.87 million) in the UK when she was just 17 years old.

She bought an apartment, two cars, splashed out on clothes and went on a number of holidays. But she later said the win made her lonely and miserable.

In an even more extreme case, British woman Callie Rogers won £1.9 million ($3.56 million) when she was just 16.

She gave away half of the money to friends and family, then spent a further £300,000 on clothes and got three boob jobs.

But now 19 years later, she’s completely broke and is relying on government assistance.

One man lost his life over his lottery win.

Abraham Shakespeare was 40 years old when he won $US30 million ($41 million) in the US in 2006. He was befriended by a woman named Dee Dee Moore.

She was convicted of shooting and killing Shakespeare and hiding his body under a concrete slab in her backyard.

Originally published as US ticket holder scores $1.9 billion prize in Mega Millions jackpot