(Reuters) – The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history totaling $640
million has at least one winner and officials were waiting early on Saturday to see if there are other winning
tickets.
Jean Shin places a sign with the updated jackpot at the Town & Country news stand in Los Angeles, California March 30,
2012. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Maryland lottery officials announced that a winning ticket was purchased at a store in
Baltimore County, though they had not identified the winner yet.
“This is truly remarkable and historic,” said
Maryland lottery director Stephen Martino.
If there is more than one winning ticket with all six numbers of the Mega
Millions lottery drawn on Friday night the winners split the jackpot.
The winning numbers announced at the drawing in
Atlanta were 2-4-23-38-46 and Mega Ball 23. It was expected to take hours to identify possible winners due to the sheer
number of the $1 tickets sold.
Odds of winning the entire jackpot are 175 million to one, said Margaret DeFrancisco,
president and chief executive of the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
If a single ticket matches all six winning numbers,
the player would receive either a one-time payment of $462 million or the full jackpot in 26 annual installment
payments.
“There is a tremendous amount of buzz and excitement,” DeFrancisco said. Buyers lined up this week across
the United States to purchase the lottery tickets.
“I’m going to pay off my law school loans,” one woman said.
Another woman said she drove to Colorado from Wyoming to buy tickets because the Mega Millions game isn’t available
there.
The previous largest Mega Millions jackpot was $390 million in 2007, which was split between two ticket holders
in Georgia and New Jersey.
About half the lottery money goes back to ticket holders in the form of winnings, 35
percent to state governments and 15 percent to retailer commissions and lottery operating expenses.
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No matter who wins the jackpot, one certain winner is the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
The tax-collecting agency subjects lottery winnings of more than $5,000 to a 25-percent federal withholding
tax.
(Additional reporting by Teresa Carson in Portland, Keith Coffman in Denver and Laura Zuckerman in Idaho; Editing
by Anthony Boadle)
