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Quote: 3 winning Mega Millions tickets, and one was sold in Illinois By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press March 30, 2012 8:02AM Reprints 133 7-Eleven clerk Matt Murphy hands Mega Millions lottery tickets to a customer at a store on the 300 block of N. LaSalle St. Friday, March 30, 2012, in Chicago. As of about 4:30 p.m., Murphy said he estimates to have sold about $15,000 in Mega Millions tickets since beginning his shift at 10 a.m. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times ARTICLE EXTRAS View Gallery RELATED STORIES Mega Millions hopefuls flock to buy tickets for biggest jackpot ever Tips on not winning the Mega Millions lottery Updated: March 31, 2012 8:24AM Lottery ticket-holders inIllinois, Kansas and Maryland each selected the winning numbers for the world record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, lottery officials said early Saturday. Illinois’ winning ticket was sold in the small town of Red Bud, near St. Louis, and the winner used a quick pick to select the numbers, Illinois Lottery spokesman Mike Lang said. The Maryland Lottery said it sold a winning ticket at a retail store in Baltimore County. A winning ticket also was purchased in northeast Kansas, according to the Kansas Lottery website. A spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a message Saturday morning. Each winning ticket was expected to be worth more than $213 million before taxes, Lang said. The winning numbers in Friday night’s drawing were 02-04-23-38-46, and the Mega Ball 23. Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett said the last time a ticket from the state won a major national jackpot was in 2008, when a ticket sold for $24 million. “We’re thrilled,” she said. “We’re due and excited.” The estimated jackpot dwarfs the previous $390 million record, which was split in 2007 by two winners who bought tickets in Georgia and New Jersey. Americans spent nearly $1.5 billion for a chance to hit the jackpot, which amounts to a $462 million lump sum and around $347 million after federal tax withholding. With the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million, it would cost $176 million to buy up every combination. Under that scenario, the strategy would win $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes. From coast to coast, people stood in line at retail stores Friday for one last chance at striking it rich. Maribeth Ptak, 31, of Milwaukee, said she only buys Mega Millions tickets when the jackpot is really big and she bought one Friday at a Milwaukee grocery store. She said she’d use the money to pay off bills, including school loans, and then she’d donate a good portion to charity. “I know the odds are really not in my favor, but why not,” she said. Sawnya Castro, 31, of Dallas, bought $50 worth of tickets at a 7-Eleven. She figured she’d use the money to create a rescue society for Great Danes, fix up her grandmother’s house, and perhaps even buy a bigger one for herself. “Not too big — I don’t want that. Too much house to keep with,” she said. Willie Richards, who works for the U.S. Marshals Service at a federal courthouse in Atlanta, figured if there ever was a time to confront astronomical odds, it was when $640 million was at stake. He bought five tickets. “When it gets as big as it is now, you’d be nuts not to play,” he said. “You have to take a chance on Lady Luck.” The new Illinois website was down for about 30 minutes Friday afternoon for “maintenance” and gave some users error messages while trying to buy tickets, officials said. “It’s a little slow loading,” lottery spokeswoman Adrian Otto said. Online lottery sales at www.illinoislottery.com debuted last Sunday, making Illinois the first state ever to offer lottery tickets online. For an idea of how brisk sales were in the hours ahead of the drawing, Illinois retail locations sold just over $2 million worth of tickets between 4 and 5 p.m. Friday — and $12.8 million for the day. That daily total translated to 33,333 tickets sold a minute. During the same hour-long window a week earlier, on March 21, hourly sales fell slightly shy of $62,400, said Elizabeth Leonard, spokeswoman for Northstar Lottery Group, the private firm that manages Illinois’ lottery. Online sales Friday stood at slightly under $300,000 at 5 p.m., a third of the total sales volume for Mega Millions since the state lottery began selling tickets over the Internet on Sunday, she said. “Clearly the load is being carried by our retailers right now,” she said. The jackpot, if taken as a $462 million lump sum and after federal tax withholding, works out to about $347 million, with the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million. Thousands of players — who converged on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold — didn’t mind that they were 50 times as likely to get struck by lightning; about 8,000 times more likely to be murdered; and about 20,000 times more likely to die in a car crash than hit the lucky numbers. “When people ask me, I just tell them that the odds of a lottery game make it a game of fate,” said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association that oversees the Mega Millions, Powerball and other lotteries. “Just buy a ticket, sit back and see if fate points a finger at you for that day.” Contributing: Dave McKinney

Quote: 3 winning Mega Millions tickets, and one was sold in Illinois By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press March 30, 2012 8:02AM Reprints 133 7-Eleven clerk Matt Murphy hands Mega Millions lottery tickets to a customer at a store on the 300 block of N. LaSalle St. Friday, March 30, 2012, in Chicago. As of about 4:30 p.m., Murphy said he estimates to have sold about $15,000 in Mega Millions tickets since beginning his shift at 10 a.m. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times ARTICLE EXTRAS View Gallery RELATED STORIES Mega Millions hopefuls flock to buy tickets for biggest jackpot ever Tips on not winning the Mega Millions lottery Updated: March 31, 2012 8:24AM Lottery ticket-holders inIllinois, Kansas and Maryland each selected the winning numbers for the world record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, lottery officials said early Saturday. Illinois’ winning ticket was sold in the small town of Red Bud, near St. Louis, and the winner used a quick pick to select the numbers, Illinois Lottery spokesman Mike Lang said. The Maryland Lottery said it sold a winning ticket at a retail store in Baltimore County. A winning ticket also was purchased in northeast Kansas, according to the Kansas Lottery website. A spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a message Saturday morning. Each winning ticket was expected to be worth more than $213 million before taxes, Lang said. The winning numbers in Friday night’s drawing were 02-04-23-38-46, and the Mega Ball 23. Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett said the last time a ticket from the state won a major national jackpot was in 2008, when a ticket sold for $24 million. “We’re thrilled,” she said. “We’re due and excited.” The estimated jackpot dwarfs the previous $390 million record, which was split in 2007 by two winners who bought tickets in Georgia and New Jersey. Americans spent nearly $1.5 billion for a chance to hit the jackpot, which amounts to a $462 million lump sum and around $347 million after federal tax withholding. With the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million, it would cost $176 million to buy up every combination. Under that scenario, the strategy would win $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes. From coast to coast, people stood in line at retail stores Friday for one last chance at striking it rich. Maribeth Ptak, 31, of Milwaukee, said she only buys Mega Millions tickets when the jackpot is really big and she bought one Friday at a Milwaukee grocery store. She said she’d use the money to pay off bills, including school loans, and then she’d donate a good portion to charity. “I know the odds are really not in my favor, but why not,” she said. Sawnya Castro, 31, of Dallas, bought $50 worth of tickets at a 7-Eleven. She figured she’d use the money to create a rescue society for Great Danes, fix up her grandmother’s house, and perhaps even buy a bigger one for herself. “Not too big — I don’t want that. Too much house to keep with,” she said. Willie Richards, who works for the U.S. Marshals Service at a federal courthouse in Atlanta, figured if there ever was a time to confront astronomical odds, it was when $640 million was at stake. He bought five tickets. “When it gets as big as it is now, you’d be nuts not to play,” he said. “You have to take a chance on Lady Luck.” The new Illinois website was down for about 30 minutes Friday afternoon for “maintenance” and gave some users error messages while trying to buy tickets, officials said. “It’s a little slow loading,” lottery spokeswoman Adrian Otto said. Online lottery sales at www.illinoislottery.com debuted last Sunday, making Illinois the first state ever to offer lottery tickets online. For an idea of how brisk sales were in the hours ahead of the drawing, Illinois retail locations sold just over $2 million worth of tickets between 4 and 5 p.m. Friday — and $12.8 million for the day. That daily total translated to 33,333 tickets sold a minute. During the same hour-long window a week earlier, on March 21, hourly sales fell slightly shy of $62,400, said Elizabeth Leonard, spokeswoman for Northstar Lottery Group, the private firm that manages Illinois’ lottery. Online sales Friday stood at slightly under $300,000 at 5 p.m., a third of the total sales volume for Mega Millions since the state lottery began selling tickets over the Internet on Sunday, she said. “Clearly the load is being carried by our retailers right now,” she said. The jackpot, if taken as a $462 million lump sum and after federal tax withholding, works out to about $347 million, with the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million. Thousands of players — who converged on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold — didn’t mind that they were 50 times as likely to get struck by lightning; about 8,000 times more likely to be murdered; and about 20,000 times more likely to die in a car crash than hit the lucky numbers. “When people ask me, I just tell them that the odds of a lottery game make it a game of fate,” said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association that oversees the Mega Millions, Powerball and other lotteries. “Just buy a ticket, sit back and see if fate points a finger at you for that day.” Contributing: Dave McKinney