Nearly five months after one Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $1.6 billion was sold near Jacksonville, Florida, the winner's identity has been revealed: Saltines Holdings LLC in Miami.
Florida Lottery announced the ticket, the largest in Mega Millions history, was purchased at a Publix in Neptune Beach for the Aug. 8 drawing.
Information on the LLC is not available. Bizapedia lists it as a corporation services company in Wilmington, Delaware, formed on Sept. 7.
On Sept. 25, the winner claimed the prize but the method of distribution wasn't known: lump sum or annual payments over 30 years. It turns out the cash option of $794,248,882 was chosen with federal withholdings of 24% by the Internal Revenue Service taken out.
Can I stay anonymous if I win the record Mega Millions jackpot?
Eighteen states grant anonymity to lottery winners, but many other states provide options for those seeking to remain out of the spotlight.
The Florida Lottery requires the single-payment cash option to be chosen in the first 60 days after the applicable draw date.
Otherwise, the prize must be claimed in 180 days or else the ticket expires.
The prize winner can't be necessarily anonymous in Florida because it is public record. Some other states require the identity to be revealed.
Florida law mandates that the Florida Lottery provide records containing the winner's name, city of residence, game won, date won and amount won to any third party who requests the information. Florida Lottery winners' street addresses and telephone numbers are kept confidential.
The Publix store at 630 Atlantic Blvd., Neptune Beach, received a $100,000 bonus commission.
The winning numbers were 3-19-20-32-33 and the Mega Ball was 14. There are 70 white balls and 25 gold ones.
There had been 31 straight drawings since the last time someone won the game’s jackpot.
Mega Millions drawings take place on Tuesdays and Fridays. The current Mega Millions jackpot is $92 million.
The Powerball pot is up to $685 million after no one had the numbers of 5, 12, 20, 24, 29 and red 4 picked on Christmas. The next drawing is Wednesday.
The biggest jackpot of all time in the United States was a $2.04 billion Powerball won by one person on Nov. 7, 2022, in California. The second largest was a single winner of $1.765 billion from Powerball in October in California.
The odds to win the Mega Millions top jackpot: 1 in 302,575,350.
This article was originally published by Allen Cone for Scripps News West Palm Beach.
