The small town of Lebanon, Maine, just made someone a billionaire. Now the question is: who is it?
No one had ever won the Mega Millions with a ticket bought in Maine until this Friday, the 13th, with a ticket worth $1.35 billion. Maine is not one of the states that lets winners stay anonymous, so if someone claims the ticket, their name will come out.
But it hasn't happened yet, leaving the town — and lotto players everywhere — eagerly anticipating an update.
"We are anxiously waiting to see if it is someone we see regularly here in town that won a whopping 1.3 BIILLLLION DOLLAS," the gas station that sold the ticket said on Facebook last week.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
Here's what we know, and still don't, about Maine's big Mega Millions' winner.
Where was the winning Mega Millions ticket sold?
Congratulations from around the world poured into that Facebook post, written by the gas station, called Hometown Gas & Grill, on Carl Broggie Highway. One person joked in the comments that the winner would be found "buying a round for the house" at a nearby bar.
The southern Maine town borders New Hampshire, near Portsmouth, and has about 6,500 residents. The town had a bank balance of about $5 million in mid-2019, according to the most recent bank audit shared on the town website. Last week's lottery prize is about 270 times bigger than that.
"There's quite a buzz at our small-town gas station this morning, I'll tell you that," owner Fred Cotreau told The Associated Press after the news was announced by the Maine State Lottery. The first thing he did was check to see if he'd bought the winning ticket, which he hadn't.
He's still getting a windfall, though — he told The Boston Globe his store will get $50,000, and that people are flocking in to use the lottery machine.
So, who won the $1.35 billion jackpot?
The winner has yet to come forward. Reached Tuesday by NBC10 Boston, Cotreau didn't have an updates on who the winner might be.
He's previously said he's hoping a local won.
"Hopefully one of the residents and one of the regular customers is the winner," Cotreau told The Associated Press. "It's exciting to have sold it but it's just more exciting for a single winner and I'm just really hoping it's somebody here in town."
What are people saying in Lebanon?
Many locals have been thrilled that Lebanon, established in 1767, is suddenly getting worldwide attention
The experience "is so cool," Chris Harding told NBC affiliate Newscenter Maine.
"That much money? I hope it's someone from around here that could use a new mobile home. That would be great," he said.
The town doesn't have its own police department, Andrew Lytle, noted, adding, "Not many people know who we are, and now the whole country in 24 hours knows the little town of Lebanon."
There was even an air of mystery at Hometown Gas & Grill, where employee Karen Downs noted that she's one of three people who could have sold the winning ticket.
"We don't know yet because that person hasn't come forward, but we should find out soon, because it was one of three of us working who could have sold it," she told Newscenter Maine
How much will the Mega Millions winner get?
To claim the full $1.35 billion, the winner would need to take the money in an annuity with annual payments over 29 years. Most jackpot recipients prefer the reduced but quicker cash option, which for Friday night's drawing was an estimated $724.6 million.
The next grand prize drawing on Tuesday will drop to an estimated $20 million and a cash option of $10.7 million.
Until Friday night, there had been 25 straight drawings without a jackpot winner.
There were more than 7 million winning tickets across nine prize tiers Friday. Beyond Maine's jackpot, 14 tickets matched five white balls to claim the second-tier prize of $1 million. Four were sold in New York, two in California and one each in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas, Mega Millions said.
What were the lucky numbers?
The winning numbers drawn late Friday night were 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and gold Mega Ball 14.
Whoever the winner is, they beat steep odds: 1 in 302.6 million, which led to three months of drawings without a claim on the jackpot
The jackpot was the second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game has had a billion-dollar win. The largest Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018 was $1.53 billion claimed by a single ticket holder in South Carolina.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Get updates on what's happening in New England to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
The Associated Press' Brian P.D. Hannon contributed to this report.
