Illinois Ticket Wins $3M from Mega Millions, Jackpot Goes Unclaimed

A player in Illinois has struck gold after matching all Mega Millions numbers with the exception of the Mega Ball. While the lucky individual narrowly missed the big prize, they will still take home some $3 million.

The Store Is Looking Forward to Learning Who the Winner Is

According to Mega Millions’ official website, the Tuesday drawing crowned no winner of the game’s jackpot prize. Instead, one lucky player in Illinois seems to have matched the five white numbers to win $3 million thanks to their 3x Megaplier.

For context, the winning numbers for the October 21 drawing were 2, 18, 27, 34, and 59, with a Mega Ball of 18.

Recent reports say that the winning ticket was sold at a gas station in McHenry, Illinois, with Bull Valley Trio, at 5301 Bull Valley Road, identified as the store that sold the ticket.

In an interview with the Illinois Lottery, Melissa Motroni of Bull Valley Trio said that the win surprisingly came not too long after the store sold a $10,000 scratch-off ticket.

I guess you can say we’re a lucky store. Everyone’s excited to see who the winner is!

Melissa Motroni

Motroni added that the identity of the winner remains unknown. However, she added that her team hopes that it is one of the shop’s regulars.

Motroni and district manager Stephanie Walters later posed for an official Illinois Lottery photo.

The store is set to receive a $30,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

The Mega Millions Jackpot Continues to Soar

The Illinois winner was notably the sole big winner for that drawing, although 11 players claimed smaller prizes after matching five white numbers and the Mega Ball. These included 5 recipients of prizes of $20,000, 5 winners of prizes of $30,000 (3x Megaplier), and a single claimant of a prize of $100,000 (10x Megaplier).

If the Illinois winner had correctly matched the Mega Ball, they would have won the game’s jackpot, which stood at $650 million with a cash option of $304.1 million at the time. Since they didn’t, the jackpot has remained unclaimed and is currently standing at $680 million with a cash option of $318.2 million. The next drawing is set to take place this Friday, at 11 pm ET.

In other news, an Arkansas man recently bought a Lotto ticket instead of a Mega Millions one and ended up winning $1.4 million. While the man initially planned to play for the big money, he decided to settle on the smaller game just as he was buying tickets.