Winning $1.5 billion ticket was sold in Simpsonville, SC

The winning Mega-Millions jackpot ticket was sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.

The store sold the lucky ticket with the numbers 5, 28, 62, 65 ,70 and the mega number 5.

State lottery officials announced Wednesday that the winning ticket was sold at KC Mart #7 at 303 Lee Vaughn Road in Simpsonville. The winner has 180 days to collect the jackpot.

The winner can take a lump sum of about $878 million before taxes, according to CNN, or get the full amount in annual payments over the next 29 years.

The $1.537 billion jackpot falls just short of the $1.586 billion record set in 2016, CNN reports.

South Carolina lottery’s executive director Hogan Brown appeared on CBS This Morning today and noted that anonymity can help the winner. “It’s very intrusive what happens, and someone could be hurt, someone could be threatened ... they can decide to expose themselves to publicity if they want to,” he said on the show, according to a clip shared on Twitter.

“The winner should sign the back of the ticket, put it in a safe location, seek financial or legal advice from a trusted source, and call the Lottery. The winner has 180 days to come forward to claim the ticket,” South Carolina lottery officials said in a press release.

Simpsonville is a small city near Greenville in upstate South Carolina with a population of about 22,000, according to the US Census Bureau.

C.J. Patel, owner of the KC Mart in Simpsonville, told the Greenville News that he will get about $30,000 for selling the winning ticket. He told the newspaper he will split his part of the winnings with the four employees at the gas station.

“Hopefully it will bring us more business,” he told the newspaper.

“The record-breaking jackpot caused a rush for ticket sales and it was estimated before the draw that 75 percent of all number combinations would be covered for this draw. Aside from the jackpot, more than $116,549,138 in prize money was awarded to players across the U.S.,” Lottory.net explained

South Carolina allows winners to be anonymous. The state is one of seven that allows winners to keep their identities secret, ABC News reports. Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas also allow winners to stay anonymous, the network reports.

Charles Duncan: 843-626-0301, @duncanreporting

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 10:58 AM.