Though I pride myself on being a practical person; one not prone to unfounded speculation or whimsicality of thought, except when it comes to pondering the location of missing airplanes or the story that continues after the last page of a good book, even I cannot help but wonder who the elusive winners of the $400 million USA Mega Millions Mega Jackpot are.
The bare facts are that March 2014 saw two winning tickets purchased in the sixth largest lottery prize in United States history; one of $400 million. The winners, one from Florida and the other Maryland, won with the numbers 11, 19, 24, 33 and 51 with the Mega Ball 7. The jackpot for that draw was worth $224 million, which will be split halfway for the two winners. Unfortunately for them the taxman will claim more than his fair share, leaving the winner with about $74 million, though less than the original amount is still nothing to be sniffed at. The Maryland winner has 182 days to claim the money while the Florida winner has 180 days before the millions go back into the pool. Mega Millions is played in 43 states, the District of Colombia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Maybe It’s You Won USA Mega Millions Jackpot?
In an effort to give my imagination a run for its money, figuratively of course, I have put together a list of people who have possibly won the USA Mega Millions jackpot and the reason they have not claimed it yet.
Bill Gates. Self-made billionaire. Enough said.
The kid down the street who borrows money from his mom’s purse to fund his secret smoking habit and the occasional lottery ticket. While I am sure his mom will be grateful for the few extra million, he is in for a spot of trouble for the petty theft and may possibly be grounded; which is probably why he is still contemplating cashing it in.
The hoarder. He probably knows the numbers of every lottery ticket he has ever purchased and has it catalogued, but cannot for the life of him remember where he put it. And, let’s be honest, if he is as serious a hoarder as he claims to be, it might take months to search through the collection for a tiny slip of paper.
The politician who said he was in a campaign meeting in Washington with his financial advisor and prospective backers, but in actual fact was meeting his mistress in Florida. Cashing in that ticket will mean a massive scandal and an ugly divorce in which his wife will take him for all he’s got. He also cannot give the ticket to anybody else to cash for him because, in the first place, he is a well-know politician and will easily be recognized. Secondly, asking another person to cash the ticket for him will undoubtedly lead to questions he is not prepared to answer and that person will always have leverage over him. Such are the perils of duplicity.
You. You probably don’t even remember buying that particular ticket because you buy one for every lottery draw possible and although you claim you would remember something as important as that, you can never really be sure. So start spring cleaning a few months early and make sure you have checked every lottery ticket you own. When you do find it and claim your millions, make sure to thank the person writing this article. Cash or card payments are accepted.
I do admit that my speculations are a bit wild and that the winner will likely turn out to be somebody’s grandmother who will check her tickets on schedule and not a day before. And while it might be nice to imagine what I would do if I was the owner of the winning ticket, I honestly believe that money would not make my life better or easier and that riches in the form of love, family, friendship and good memories made while travelling absolutely broke across the world are worth more than millions in the bank.
About Jeremy Rapaport
Okay, my name is Jeremy and you can find me on Google+. I`m here to write about the lottery. You may ask, why lottery? Everything is simple – life is the lottery! It`s a pretty interesting stuff to write about. Some people win, some people lose, but no one loses the hope. Here you can find everything you wanted to know about the lottery. Almost all world’s lotteries are gathered in one place. So, join us and let`s try our luck together!
