The Maine Lottery revealed on Wednesday that a person hit a $1.35 billion jackpot that was sold at a Maine gas station last month.
They did not share the name of the winning person. They just said that the first state jackpot of Mega Millions was claimed on Friday, January 13th through a limited liability company (or LLC) called LaKoma Island Investments.
The winner chose the pre-tax cash payment of $723,564,144, instead of the annual payment.
An anonymous spokesperson for the winner said: “The winner thinks carefully about the best uses of the prize that will change his life.”
Michael Boardman, deputy director of the Maine Bureau of Liquor and Lottery Operations, congratulated the winner, adding that management wishes them “the best they can to cash in on their recent winnings.”
While Maine isn’t one of the states that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, the state lottery confirmed Wednesday that they will only be identified by the company.
The prize was the second largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
Who will you say? How do you ship? When do you claim your prize? We answer these questions.
The winning ticket was purchased at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine, earning the store a $50,000 bonus and putting it at the center of speculation about the identity of the winner for over a month.
“What we do here in our small town: We’re looking for a rare limousine,” said hometown owner Fred Cotro a week after selling the winning ticket. “It’s not prom season, so if we see a limo in an aisle somewhere, we’ll knock.”
Lebanon borders New Hampshire, near Portsmouth, and has a population of about 6,500. The city had a bank balance of about $5 million as of mid-2019, according to the latest bank audit shared on the city’s website. Last month’s lottery prize was 270 times bigger than that.
