SOUTHAMPTON — With a campground nearby, Nainish Patel is used to seeing new faces stop by his Southampton Beer & Wine store throughout the summer. This past week, however, Patel saw an influx of strangers come with the same goal in mind: winning.
With the Mega Millions jackpot topping $1 billion, Patel said even the biggest lottery skeptics were sliding a few dollars across the counter in hopes of walking away with the historically large sum. His vendor even brought over an additional roll of paper anticipating the massive increase in ticket sales, he added.
“There’s been all kinds of people in here … even people that don’t usually buy tickets are buying tickets. I mean, who doesn’t want to be a billionaire?” said Patel.
To win the jackpot, a ticket needs to match six numbers at the time of the drawing. No one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April.
The jackpot for Mega Millions, which is coordinated by state lotteries and played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, reached an estimated $1.2 billion by Friday afternoon, according to Patel.
As many ticket-holders held their breath waiting for the 11 o’clock Eastern Standard Time drawing in Atlanta on Friday night, it was ultimately one ticket in the Central Standard Time Zone that had the winning numbers of 13, 36, 45, 57 and 67, plus the Mega Ball of 14. The winning ticket was purchased at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines, a suburb of Chicago, according to the Illinois State Lottery.
The winning ticket-holder will end up with a prize of $1.337 billion or $780.5 million cash, according to a press release from Mega Millions. The final value was higher than the estimate based on actual sales.
This jackpot is the second largest in the entire history of the game, which began in 2002. The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever was won by an anonymous player in South Carolina. The ticket topped out at $1.537 billion and is the world’s largest lottery prize won on a single ticket.
The retailer of the gas station also is a reported winner as the Illinois State Lottery notes that the business will receive $500,000 just for selling the ticket.
“Congratulations to the Illinois Lottery for selling the winning ticket for the $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot,” Ohio Lottery director Pat McDonald, who is currently serving as lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history. We’re eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon! Better still, this exciting jackpot run has had a significant positive impact on the revenues for good causes raised by our member lotteries.”
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million. The odds of being struck by lightning are much higher, at less than one in a million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite the odds, brothers like Chris and Pat St. Martin were hopeful that they could be victorious, having purchased a ticket at Union Mart in Easthampton on Friday.
After paying off his student loans, Chris St. Martin said he’d use some of the winnings to take a road trip in Canada with his wife and son. For Pat, he said his dream of a new boat and house could be realized.
With people coming in left and right, Mohammad Basil, who works at Union Mart, would ask customers how they intended to use the money.
For most, he said, the sum was much too much for just one person and should be shared.
Sharing a similar sentiment was Jim Surprise, who was visiting Easthampton from Florida. On Friday, he stopped around the corner from Union Mart at Jim’s Package Store on Adams Street.
His plan once he won the jackpot was to buy all of the homes of his friends and family for them.
“I’d live it up,” he said.
To increase their chances of a winning ticket, some will carry around a shiny penny or an often elusive four-leaf clover, or even sport some jade jewelry.
At Northampton Liquors & Wine, owner Piyush Patel said he saw lots of people playing dates of importance for their Mega Millions numbers — birth dates and anniversaries — with many hopeful that those lucky numbers will finally be drawn.
Although his store has never sold a million-dollar Mega Millions ticket, Piyush Patel said he did sell a $2 million scratch ticket many years ago. To commemorate the occasion, he posted a sign saying, “Our customers are lucky!”
Throughout the years, he’s had a variety of winners walk through his doors, many of whom he says are older. Patel attributes much of his customers’ luck to having lived lives that were, on many occasions, very tough, and they were humble and hardworking.
To him, that’s the secret to securing money: working hard.
“Money comes to you if you work hard and don’t give up,” he said.
He said Friday that if he won the billion-dollar lottery, he was going to pay off his debts, expand his business and give much of the sum to his children.
“But, I am not greedy. I’m happy if anyone wins,” he said.
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
