December 19, 2013

50-Person Office Pool Wins $1 Million In Second-Largest MEGA MILLIONS® Drawing In History

Dover, DE - December 19, 2013 -A fortunate group of 50 coworkers at a New Castle County company received an early holiday gift yesterday. A ticket purchased by the office pool correctly matched five numbers to win a second prize of $1 million in Tuesday night’s MEGA MILLIONS® drawing. The jackpot for the December 17 drawing was $648 million, the second largest MEGA MILLIONS jackpot in the game’s history. A female representative from the office pool claimed the group’s prize at Lottery headquarters yesterday afternoon. Each member will receive a $20,000 prize (before taxes). The group has elected to remain anonymous.

The ticket was one of 250 MEGA MILLIONS Quick Pick tickets purchased by the office pool at the ShopRite of Four Seasons (Glasgow) located on 700 Plaza Drive in Newark. ShopRite will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

"We normally play when the POWERBALL® and MEGA MILLIONS jackpots get really big,” said the office pool representative. "åBut we’ve never won anything and we never thought we’d win this one.”

The representative said some members of the pool discovered their windfall Tuesday evening when they checked their numbers against the winning numbers, while others found out Wednesday morning. “I was in disbelief,” said the representative. “I checked my spreadsheet of numbers Wednesday morning and then went into the safe to get the ticket to double-check it.” When asked what she would do with their winnings, the representative told Lottery officials that she was banking it.

"We’re excited to have yet another million dollar winner in Delaware, especially during the holidays and for an almost record-breaking jackpot” said Delaware Lottery Director, Vernon Kirk. “This is the fifth prize of a million dollars or more that we’ve awarded this year.”

There were 91,461 winners in Delaware for Tuesday night’s drawing with prizes totaling $1,184,284.

The two MEGA MILLIONS $648 million jackpot-winning tickets were sold in Georgia and California. The winning numbers were 08-14-17-20-39, with a Mega Ball of 7. The jackpot rolled 21 draws without a winner, which is the longest roll ever for MEGA MILLIONS and POWERBALL®. The run began on October 1. On October 19, MEGA MILLIONS® was enhanced to offer bigger, faster-growing jackpots, and better overall odds of winning a prize. Jackpots increase by at least $5 million in drawings where there are no tickets matching all six numbers.

"The game change appears to have been successful in quickly generating jackpots as evidenced by this jackpot run,” said Vernon Kirk.

About MEGA MILLIONS®:
MEGA MILLIONS is a multi-state lottery game available in 43 states plus the District of Columbia and the U. S. Virgin Islands; a total of 45 jurisdictions. MEGA MILLIONS is not a private lottery corporation but a consortium of state lotteries: Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Washington, Maryland, and California. Drawings are held Tuesday and Friday evenings at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets are $1 for purchase and are available at lottery retailers statewide. For more information, visit www.delottery.com.

About the Delaware Lottery:
Since the start of operations in 1975, the Delaware Lottery has contributed more than $4.1 billion to the state's General Fund to help finance needed state services that benefit everyone in Delaware. The Lottery offers a variety of games: POWERBALL®, MEGA MILLIONS®, HOT LOTTO®, MULTI-WIN LOTTO, DELAWARE CASH 5®, PLAY 3, PLAY 4, Keno, iGaming and assorted Instant Games, Video Lottery, Sports Lottery and Table Games. Delaware Lottery game and promotional details are available at delottery.com, at licensed locations, and from the Lottery's office in Dover.

Winner Privacy is our Policy.
The Delaware Lottery only publishes winner names with their consent.

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