Last October, someone in Simpsonville, South Carolina won the nation’s largest Mega Millions jackpot of $1.5 billion. And since then, no one has claimed the prize, setting up one of the lottery’s biggest mysteries. They still have some time as the deadline to turn in the ticket or forfeit the jackpot is April 19th. But it has a lot of people wondering, with a billion dollars at stake, could the winner be dead, have they misplaced the ticket or do they just not know they have the winning ticket?
The ticket was sold at KC Mart #7 in Simpsonville, according to several reports. The store still has the sign up that says they sold a billion-and-a-half dollar ticket – but no one has even hinted that they are the big winner.
The store stands to lose about $50,000 if no one turns in the ticket and the state will lose about $61 million in taxes as the money will be distributed to the 44 other states with a Mega Millions jackpot. According to WHNT 19 News, Simpsonville is a town of just 22,000, so its possible that whoever holds the winning ticket is a familiar face – and one that can keep a secret.
Large winning tickets have gone unclaimed before. A $68M dollar ticket purchased in New York was never claimed back in 2002. And one winner in a shared Indiana jackpot of $103.5M never claimed their half of the prize, according to WHNT19.
We may never know who won, even if someone does claim the jackpot, as South Carolina is one of the states that allows winners to claim their jackpot anonymously.
Could you have waited this long to claim the billion dollar prize?
PHOTO: AP
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