Winning ticket worth $177 million sold in Stuttgart
RELEASE DATE: 4/1/2017
LITTLE ROCK – No April Fool's Joke… It's official! Someone who bought a ticket in Arkansas is the lucky winner of the largest jackpot ticket ever sold in the state. The player bought the winning Mega Millions ticket in Stuttgart Thursday morning at the All Stop Valero at 408 East 22nd Street. Once the ticket is authenticated by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, it will be worth a whopping $177 million, a cash value of about $107 million before taxes. The retailer also gets a $50,000 selling bonus.
"This is a monumental day for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery," said Lottery Director Bishop Woosley. "The player wins, but Arkansas wins, too. This will pay millions in state taxes, a big retailer commission, and this kind of attention helps promote our lottery's mission, which is to provide scholarships for Arkansas students."
This win puts the number of Arkansas Scholarship Lottery-made millionaires now at 55. The last million dollar prize won in the state was Dannie Mitchell of North Little Rock, who claimed $1 million from a $20 Arkansas Millions instant ticket. The second largest Arkansas Scholarship Lottery winner, from Conway, won $25 million playing Powerball in January of 2010.
Last night's winner will not be known until he or she comes forth to claim their prize. Their winning ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night, 17, 24, 27, 32 and 58, plus the Mega Ball number 10. Along with the grand prize winner, one ticket sold in New Jersey matched all five white numbers drawn to win $1 million. Unfortunately, that player did not play the Megaplier option which would have increased their winnings to $3 million.
Facts About Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Wins
The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery produces approximately 45 winners every minute, based on data from fiscal year 2016. The lottery produces nearly 2 million winners every month, or 64,000 per day, or more than 2,500 per hour. The luckiest county in the state, with more than 4 million prize winners in 2016, is naturally the most populous: Pulaski County. But even the "least luckiest," Montgomery County, saw more than 22,000 prize winners last year.
About the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery
Since its inception in 2009, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has provided nearly $700 million for in-state college scholarships to Arkansas students, nearly $2 billion in prizes to players, and more than $182 million in commissions to Lottery retailers. More than 92 cents of every dollar of Lottery revenue goes to prizes, scholarships, retailer commissions and other expenses in Arkansas.
To date, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has provided funding for more than 235,000 scholarships to Arkansas students. To apply for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, visit scholarships.ADHE.edu before the June 1 deadline.
About Mega Millions
Mega Millions is a multi-state jackpot game. Drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 10 p.m. Five balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 75; the Mega ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 15. If all your numbers match those that are drawn, you win the jackpot, which starts at $15 million. For an additional dollar, you can add the Megaplier option to multiply non-jackpot winnings by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times. The Megaplier number is randomly selected before each drawing.
Follow the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Visit MyArkansasLottery for more information on scholarships, winners, games, odds, promotions – and to join the free Play It AgainTM Rewards Club. To hear winning numbers, call the Winning Numbers Hotline at 501-682-IWON (4966). To get help with problem gambling, contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
Media contact: Donna Bragg, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, (479) 459-2132
This press release is mirrored from http://www.megamillions.com/. We do not own a copyright on it and we are not the original press contact.
Comments