Lottery officials on Monday announced that a SC resident had stepped forward to claim the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot from last October - the largest jackpot payout to a single victor in USA history - but elected to remain anonymous. He or she will remain anonymous, a right afforded to the victor by state law. The victor chose the cash option of a one-time payment of $877,784,124.
It says that is the largest jackpot payout to a single victor in United States history.
According to the victor, on the day they bought the ticket, they let another customer go ahead of them in line to buy a Mega Millions ticket.
The buyer of the winning ticket beat the odds of 1 in 303 million to win the drawing for a grand prize of $1.537 billion, just short of a word record Powerball jackpot of $1.586 billion in January 2016.
The ticket was purchased October 23, at the KC Mart in Simpsonsville, a town of about 22,000 people outside of Greenville.
But the cash option payment chosen by the South Carolina Mega Millions victor amounts to a lump-sum total of $877,784,124 - the largest jackpot payout to a single victor in USA history, the state lottery commission said.
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How long would you wait to claim the winning lottery ticket for a $1.5 billion jackpot?
"A simple act of kindness led to an wonderful outcome", lottery officials said in a statement. It had been 132 days since the winning ticket was sold. The statement Monday gave no clue as to why the victor took his or her time to come forward.
If the prize had gone unclaimed by the April 19 deadline, the $1.5 billion would have been redistributed to the 44 states - along with D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands - that take part in the Mega Millions.
The prize being claimed does come with other benefits for the state besides the cachet of knowing a new multimillionaire is walking around somewhere.
According to the S.C. Lottery, the person "marvels at how every decision made that day brought the victor to the store, at that very moment, to make the Quick Pick Mega Millions lottery ticket purchase".
The anonymous victor has retained a lawyer, Jason Kurland of Rivkin Radler in NY, to act as their spokesperson.
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