The winner of a $552 million Mega Millions jackpot earlier this month has stepped forward to claim their prize.
The winning ticket for the June 4 jackpot was purchased on the Illinois Lottery website, according to WLS-TV. According to the Mega Millions website, it was the largest jackpot won through the iLottery in U.S. history.
The winning numbers drawn on June 4 were 19-37-40-63-69 and the Mega Ball number was 17. The Megaplier was 3X.
The winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was nicknamed “Mega Millionaire” by Illinois Lottery officials.
The supervisor of the Illinois Lottery Des Plaines Prize Center, Kathy Arvanitis, held up a check signifying the winner of the ninth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
In a statement, the winner was checking their emails when one from the Illinois Lottery caught their eye. The email instructed them to check their numbers.
“In the past, I’ve won $2 here or $5 there, so I assumed it would be similar,’ the big winner said. “You can’t imagine my shock and disbelief when I saw that I had won the jackpot amount of $552 million. I actually quit the app and then signed back in to double-check and make sure it was real. It was real, all right -- but it still feels unreal!”
The winner said that their single mother had to work two jobs while they were growing up.
“The day after I graduated from high school, I started working and I haven’t stopped since,” the winner said. “I am a hard worker. I’ve spent my life as a laborer and once I was making a decent living, I asked my mom to retire and let me take care of her. It was my way of thanking her for how much she sacrificed for us. I haven’t told her yet about this life-changing windfall but when that time comes, we’re all going to be shedding some happy tears.”
The June 4 prize was the second largest won in Illinois, trailing only a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot that was won by a ticketholder who bought it at a Speedway convenience store in Des Plaines in July 2022, WMAQ-TV reported.
Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 each in most jurisdictions, but players can add the Megaplier for an additional $1 to multiply their non-jackpot prizes.
Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Top 10 Mega Millions jackpots
- 1. $1.602 billion – Aug. 8, 2023, one ticket in Florida.
- 2. $1.537 billion – Oct. 23, 2018, one ticket in South Carolina.
- 3. $1.348 billion – Jan. 13, 2023, one ticket in Maine.
- 4. $1.337 billion – July 29, 2022, one ticket in Illinois.
- 5. $1.128 billion – March 26, 2024, one ticket in New Jersey
- 6. $1.050 billion – Jan. 22, 2021, one ticket in Michigan.
- 7. $656 million – March 30, 2012, split between three tickets in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.
- 8. $648 million – Dec. 17, 2023, split between two winning tickets in California and Georgia.
- 9. $552 million – June 4, 2024, one ticket in Illinois.
- 10. $543 million – July 24, 2018, one ticket in California.
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