SACRAMENTO – The winner of a MEGA Millions ticket purchased a week ago in Hayward stepped forward today to claim his $275,671 prize.
Catarino Rodriguez of Hayward is no stranger to big lottery wins – he won $19,000 in an October 2007 SuperLotto Plus® draw – but he says he was surprised to learn he had won such a large amount this time. He looks forward to house shopping – and to continuing his streak and winning an “even bigger” prize next time.
Rodriguez purchased his winning ticket at the 7-Eleven located at 130 Harder Road. The winning numbers were 5, 24, 37, 47, 52, and the Mega number – the only number the ticket did not match – was 6. A second ticket, purchased at New Aborn Liquors in San Jose, also matched five of six numbers in last Tuesday’s draw and has not yet been claimed.
Tonight’s MEGA Millions jackpot is an astounding $181 million.
More than 95 cents of every Lottery dollar is returned to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions. The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed nearly $21 billion to California schools out of total sales of nearly $56 billion. Retailers benefit too, earning $3.6 billion in compensation since 1985.