Saturday, September 1, 2007

Mega Millions officials have stated that there are four winners in Friday’s US$330,000,000 lottery drawing in the United States. The tickets matched the drawn number balls of 8, 18, 22, 40, 44 with the Mega Ball of 11.

The lucky winners bought their tickets in four different states. The only winning ticket purchase location to be identified so far was Walther Liquors in Nottingham, Maryland located in Baltimore County and the winner from that purchase has yet to come forward. Lottery officials said the winner bought five tickets, for $1 each, just after 5:00 p.m. Friday, all as a ‘quick pick’ ticket, which is when the computer randomly selects the numbers. The other winners bought their tickets in Virginia, Texas and New Jersey, though the specific retailers had not been revealed.

But the jackpot winners are not the only lucky ones. 36 other individuals had winning tickets that matched all five numbers, without matching the Mega Ball. Those numbers are good for a prize of $250,000. The luck kept spreading though, as 215 others had four winning numbers while also matching the Mega Ball. Those ticket holders will receive a prize of $10,000.

The odds of at least one person winning the jackpot were one in 175,711,536. It was the third largest lottery jackpot in the world.

“You have a better chance of being hit by lightning at the same place and time every day for a week,” said Buddy Roogow, the director of the Maryland Lottery division of Mega Millions.