A record jackpot of over $1.5 billion was claimed in South Carolina on Wednesday. However, the jackpot, claimed from the Mega Millions Jackpot, may well have ended up somewhere else.
The record $1.5 billion jackpot was claimed recently, but the winning numbers were announced last October. Now, one unidentified winner has stepped forward with a winning ticket. South Carolina is one of only eight states that lets lottery winners keep their identities hidden.
The State Lottery Commission announced that the winner has decided to take a one-time payment. According to NBC, the jackpot amounts to a total of $878 million after deductions, making it the largest-ever payout to a single lottery winner. The State of South Carolina is likely thankful too, because if the winner hadn’t stepped forward by April 19th, the state would’ve lost over $61 million in federal payments. The store selling the ticket would’ve missed out on $50,000 as well. The winner, for their part, was extremely lucky as well. They faced the possibility of missing out on a large fortune after beating the 1 in 302.5 million odds to win the jackpot.
