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The MegaMillions jackpot of around $122,000,000
was won by a single ticket holder on 9 January,
according to lottery officials. The winning
numbers were 07, 11, 26, 38, 54 and the Mega
Ball was 13.
No one has yet come forward to claim the prize,
and it is quite possible that the winner isn't
even aware of their good fortune at this point
in time. Several previous MegaMillions players
have only discovered their luck weeks, or occasionally
months after the winning draw took place. Officials
have said that the winning ticket was purchased
in Amarillo, Texas, and the hope is that this
information will encourage players in that particular
area to check and double-check their tickets.
MegaMillions, which has two draws each week
on Tuesday and Friday, is well known for it's
substantial jackpots. The minimum jackpot is
$12 million, but with a few rollovers it can
increase to many times that amount. Although
the £122 million jackpot won in Tuesday
is large (to say the least) it still pales in
comparison to the record $363 million that was
won in May 2000 when the lottery was referred
to as the "Big Game".
The odds of winning, however, are slim, with
each ticket (bearing 5 main numbers from 56
and 1 Mega Ball number from 46) having a 1 in
175,711,536 chance of landing the jackpot. Participants
can live in any one of twelve US states, namely
California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas,
Virginia and Washington, and with nine prize
tiers the overall chance of winning any prize
is 1 in 40.
With the $122,000,000 jackpot having been won,
albeit by a currently unknown player, the next
jackpot for the MegaMillions draw on Friday
12 January is reset to the minimum of $12,000,000.
12 January, 2007
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