Thanks to an unplanned purchase of a Mega Millions® ticket with the added Megaplier® feature, Steve McMillen of North Branford doubled his lottery prize and won $20,000 on Aug. 24.
“At the time, I didn’t even know what a Megaplier was,” McMillen told Lottery officials with a laugh. “When the retailer added the Megaplier to my Mega Millions ‘Quick Pick’ by mistake, I decided to keep the ticket anyway.”
The winning Mega Millions numbers drawn on Aug. 24 were 25 - 34 - 45 - 46 – 49; the Mega Ball number was 34. McMillen matched four of the first five numbers, plus the Mega Ball. The “4 + 1” prize level in Mega Millions is worth $10,000, but with the Megaplier, a $1 feature that multiplies the value of prizes won, McMillen automatically multiplied his prize by 2.
Arriving at lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill Tuesday morning, McMillen accepted a prize check for $13,660 (value after taxes). The unexpected windfall will go toward his daughter’s education.
There were a total of 4,845 winning tickets sold statewide for the Aug. 24 drawing whose values ranged from $2 to $20,000 each. McMillen purchased his prize winning ticket from North Branford Getty located at 208 Foxon Road in North Branford.
The overall odds of winning a Mega Millions prize are 1 in 39.9 based. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175,711,536 million.
For information about the CT Lottery, call (860) 713-2700 or visit ctlottery.org.
Information courtesy of Valerie Lamb/CT Lottery
