‘Let’s get together,’ I suggested and I won a $1 million Mega Millions prize but now I’m only taking home $25,000
AN ILLINOIS man is celebrating a major lottery win after his ticket number was drawn for a $1 million prize.
The Mega Millions winner is only getting $25,000 of the pot, however, as he’s not the only winner.
Donald Gant, of Bartlett, Illinois, is splitting the prize with 39 other people, he told NBC Chicago.
That’s because he’d asked a large group of coworkers to go in together on a ticket after the pot reached $1.13 billion.
“I said ‘hey, you know, the lottery is over a billion dollars,’ so I said ‘hey guys, let’s get together, let’s try to see if we can win,’” he told the local news.
On Tuesday, the group’s lucky numbers were drawn.
Read More about Lottery
While they hadn’t won the jackpot, they did get a sizeable chunk of money.
Split 40 ways, the $1 million prize is $25,000 before taxes.
The ticket was bought at a BP gas station off Route 59.
HOW IT WORKS
Mega Millions is a drawing game.
That means players try to match numbers on their tickets with numbers on randomly drawn balls.
You can choose five numbers between 1 and 70, which can be drawn on white balls, and another number between 1 and 25 on the golden “mega” ball.
Every Tuesday and Friday, Mega Millions draws numbers.
There are several ways to win.
- Matching the mega ball alone wins $2.
- The mega ball plus one white ball wins $4.
- Any three balls wins $10.
- Three white balls and the mega ball wins $200.
- Four white balls wins $500.
- Four white balls and the mega ball wins $10,000.
- Five white balls wins $1 million.
- Matching all five white balls and the mega ball wins the jackpot.
Lottery players who are struggling with gambling addiction can call the National Gambling Hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visit the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
MORE LOTTO
Another lottery winner also forfeited a chunk of his $1 million prize.
By choosing the lump sum option rather than the annuity, he took home a smaller amount.
A $300,000 prize winner recently revealed just how much they lost thanks to the tax man.
Read More on The US Sun
Another Mega Millions winner waited nearly 30 years to get their full prize amount.
See The U.S. Sun’s list of the top lottery winners — and how their lives have unfolded.