US Mega Millions winner will net about $120M from $648-M jackpot
ATLANTA, — USA (AP) A Georgia woman who used family members’ birth dates to select the winning numbers in Tuesday’s $648 million Mega Millions jackpot came forward to claim her portion of the prize just hours after discovering she held a winning ticket.
Ira Curry, of Stone Mountain, was identified as one of two winners of the jackpot, the second-largest on record. Georgia lottery officials said the ticket was “a last-minute purchase” in an Atlanta-area Gateway Newstand.
“She was driving to work, she had the radio on, and she knew she had the Mega ball number (7). Her daughter quickly looked up the winning numbers,” said Georgia Lottery Director Debbie Alford. “Between joyful tears and laughter on the daughter’s part, she relayed to her mother that she’d won.”
Curry, 56, did not attend a press briefing announcing her win and was unavailable for comment. “It’s unreal,” she told lottery officials. “It’s like I’m still dreaming.”
Curry will split a lump sum payout valued at about $346.7 million with a ticket holder in San Jose, California. Alford said after a 25 per cent federal tax and 6 per cent Georgia state tax are factored in, Curry receive about
$120 million.
Alford said she was baffled Curry stepped forward so quickly. Typically, jackpot winners wait days, or weeks, to surface — and in Georgia, winners have 180 days to claim prizes. The California ticket holder, who has yet to come forward, has a year to collect their half.
Young Soo Lee, who owns the store where Curry bought her ticket, relished Curry’s good fortune.
“I’m so excited and nervous too,” Young told Atlanta’s Fox 5 News early Wednesday. Soo Lee, who said she sold about 1,300 tickets Tuesday, will also benefit. Her store will receive about $1 million for selling a winning ticket.
Tuesday’s jackpot is second only to the record $656 million won by three ticket holders in March 2012.
The odds of winning were about 1 in 259 million. Twenty ticket holders won $1
million prizes.
If there had been no winner, the next jackpot could have surged past $825 million, easily outpacing the $656 million record jackpot split by three winners in March 2012.
The winning numbers 8, 20, 14, 17, 39 and 7.
