Well it wasn’t the $980 million jackpot he was hoping for, but a Towson man is still happy about matching five of the six Mega Millions numbers in the Nov. 14 drawing giving him a third-tier win of $30,000.
It was a lowkey celebration as the big winner was home when he realized he matched the Mega Ball plus four of the five white balls for the third-tier win. The base prize is $10,000, but the game automatically adds a multiplier for non-jackpot prizes, and the Towson winner’s was 3X, boosting his winnings to $30,000.
“I looked at the numbers and saw that I won. I don’t get too excited,” he said Nov. 20 when he claimed the prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
The retired teacher has been a player of the Maryland Lottery since 1975. He won $5,000 and $7,500 on the Pick games over the years, but hadn’t had as much luck with Mega Millions until last week.
“I don’t think I won anything over $10 on Mega Millions,” he said.
The Baltimore County resident plans on putting his winnings in the bank.
He bought the hot ticket at the Royal Farms store at 1630 West Joppa Road in Towson.
A player in Georgia won the $980 million Mega Millions jackpot, resulting in it resetting after its brush with the billion-dollar mark. Meanwhile, half a billion dollars is in the rear-view mirror for Powerball, as the game’s jackpot for the Nov. 22 drawing has an estimated annuity value of $629 million with an estimated cash option of $294.5 million.
