By: Brayden Yin

A 1.337-billion-dollar jackpot has been won in a Chicago suburb, beating the odds. It has yet to be claimed.

The numbers that won were 13, 36, 45, 57, and 67, and Mega Ball: 14. Megamillions.com said there was one winning ticket for the jackpot in the drawing of numbers on Friday night. The ticket was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines, near Chicago. Pat McDonald is the Ohio Lottery Director, and the current Lead Director for the Mega Millions Consortium, and he stated on the lottery website: “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history.”

A lottery is a contest for which people buy tickets with numbers on them. Then, on TV, numbers are announced, and if they match any of the numbers printed on players’ tickets, each winner receives a prize of money. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot—when all the numbers match—is 1 out of 302.5 million. The winner, who has not yet stepped up to claim their prize, beat the near-impossible odds and won the jackpot. The winner may only claim the $1.337 billion if they choose the annuity option, which is paid annually over 29 years. However, most winners choose the cash option; in this case, the winner immediately receives $780.5 million.

The Illinois Lottery will also give the store that sold the ticket half a million dollars, just because they were the ones who sold the ticket. A clerk at the Speedway store that probably sold the ticket said that the store hadn’t been officially told that it sold the winning ticket; however, the clerk suspected that this was the case because many reporters had shown up at the store asking for comments. The winner could be one person, or it could be a group of people. The Illinois Lottery won’t know which it is until the winner(s) turn up to claim their prize.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/30/1114699243/mega-millions-winner-ticket-numbers-jackpot