Anonymous winner claims $1.537bn Mega Millions jackpot weeks before deadline

One ticket matched all six numbers in the Mega Millions drawing on 23 October 2018 and won a jackpot of $1.537 billion. The numbers were 5, 28, 62, 65 and 70, with Mega Ball 5. The ticket had been sold at the KC Mart convenience store in Simpsonville, near Greenville in South Carolina.

Then the months went by with no claim. People across the state traded theories about why the winner was staying silent. The deadline was 19 April 2019, and an unclaimed prize would have gone back to the states that sell Mega Millions.

On 4 March 2019 the South Carolina Education Lottery said the winner had come forward. State law lets winners keep their identity private, and this one did. A New York lawyer, Jason Kurland, was hired to represent them and speak on their behalf.

The winner took the one-off cash payment of $877,784,124, which the lottery called the biggest jackpot payout to a single winner in US history at that point. KC Mart received $50,000 for selling the ticket, and the commission said the state would collect $61 million in income tax.

Sources

• CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• ABC11 / AP (abc11.com)
• FOX 5 DC / AP (fox5dc.com)