US man wins Sh155 billion jackpot

A man in South Carolina in the United States can claim a tremendous lottery jackpot –  Ksh 155 billion ($1.537 billion) or Ksh 88 billion ($878 million) cash. The winning numbers for October 23 are the white balls the white balls 5, 28, 62, 65 and 70, plus the gold Mega Ball 5, Mega Millions has announced.

The history-making Mega Millions jackpot smashed the former Mega Millions record of Ksh 66.3 billion (656 million) set in March 2012, and is just shy of the Ksh 160.5 billion ($1.586 billion) Powerball prize in January 2016 which was shared by three winning tickets.

“The moment we’ve been waiting for finally arrived, and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Gordon Medenica, Lead Director of the Mega Millions Group and Director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming. “This is truly a historic occasion. We’re so happy for the winner, and we know the South Carolina Education Lottery can’t wait to meet the lucky ticket holder.”

The jackpot had been rolling since July 24, when a California office pool of 11 co-workers shared a Ksh 55 billion ($543 million) prize. Three other jackpots have been won this year – Ksh 45.7 billion ($451 million) on January 5 (Florida), Ksh 53.9 billion ($533 million) on March 30 (New Jersey), and Ksh 144 billion ($142 million) on May 4 (Ohio).

In addition to the jackpot winner, the sales frenzy produced a whopping 36 second prize tickets – each matching the five white balls drawn Tuesday night. Eight were in California, four each in Florida and New York, two each in Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia, and one each in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The Texas winner and one of the Florida Match 5 winners included the optional Megaplier, so those two tickets are worth $3 million each.

For matching four white balls plus the Mega Ball, 419 tickets won the game’s $10,000 third prize Tuesday night. Fifty-one of those are actually worth $30,000 each because they included the optional Megaplier.

In total, there were 15,750,013 winning tickets Tuesday night in addition to the jackpot winner. In this 26-draw jackpot run, beginning with the July 27 drawing there were more than 50.2 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 85 worth Ksh 101 million ($1 million) or more and the jackpot winner.