What is $640 million divided by three? More division than US lottery jackpot winners in the states of Illinois, Kansas and Maryland will ever have to worry about again.
Lottery firm Mega Millions announced last night that winning tickets for Friday's record-breaking lottery were bought in those states, after a draw that saw Americans spend nearly $1.5 billion on tickets.
The numbers drawn were 2, 4, 23, 38 and 46, and the "Mega Ball" was 23.
Reports yesterday suggested that the prize total would be revised to as high as $656 million after all sales were tallied.
"And we have a winner!!" the Illinois Lottery posted on Twitter yesterday. The ticket had been bought at Red Bud Motomart in Red Bud, Illinois, the message said, about 60km from St. Louis.
Jenna Smith, a shift leader at the store, said that regulars had been filing in throughout the morning to celebrate - and commiserate.
Maryland's winning ticket came from Baltimore County, according to the state's lottery website. "This is truly remarkable and historic," Stephen Martino, the state's lottery director, said in a statement. "We can't wait to greet the winner."
In Kansas, officials said only that the ticket had come from the "northeast region" of the state. Winners in the state have the option of remaining anonymous, said Cara Sloan-Ramos, a spokeswoman for the state's lottery.
In Illinois, a winner's name, home city and prize total are made public "to assure other players that prizes are paid to winners," according to the state's lottery website.
Of course, stories abound about the perils of life after a windfall. There is the tale of Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia man who in 2002 won a $314.9 million jackpot but later said he regretted the payout after years of legal turmoil and personal tragedy.
In November 2009, a construction worker in New Jersey, Americo Lopes, hid a $38.5 million Mega Millions ticket from friends with whom he had been playing the lottery, as a team, for years. Less than three weeks ago, a jury in Union County ordered him to split his winnings.
Before Friday's draw, Mega Millions called the $640 million prize "the largest lottery jackpot in world history," surpassing a previous record of $390 million.
The lottery had announced that a single winner would have had the choice of two payment options: 26 annual pretax payments of $24.6 million, or a cash alternative of about $462 million.
New York Times