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Unidentified winner walks away with Sh160 billion Jackpot
Only one ticket matched all six numbers in the U.S. Mega Millions lottery for a jackpot that was just short of a world record $1.6 billion, an official said early on Wednesday. The ticket, sold in South Carolina, where winners may remain anonymous, matched the five numbers 5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and the Mega Ball 5 that were drawn on Tuesday night, a Mega Millions spokeswoman said. The buyer of the ticket beat the odds of 1 in 303 million to win the Mega Millions drawing for one of the largest jackpots in U.S. history. Still, the jaw-dropping $1.537 billion jackpot failed to break the record for lottery winnings, held by the $1.586 billion Powerball prize shared by winners in January 2016. Before the drawing, lottery officials had been reporting an expected record-breaking $1.6 billion jackpot, based on estimates tied to historical patterns, lottery spokeswoman Carole Bober Gentry said on Wednesday. After the drawing, lottery officials rolled back the jackpot total to $1.537 billion, based on actual ticket sales. “There are few precedents for a jackpot this size. Typically, about 70 percent of sales occur on the drawing day, so forecasting precise numbers in advance can be difficult,” Gentry said in a statement.
