SACRAMENTO – Sean Sanders never considered himself to be a lucky person, but this past week may be enough to change his way of thinking. When Sanders went to his local retailer today to pick up a claim form for a $1400 Lottery win from Saturday, he checked his MEGA Millions® ticket from last night’s draw and discovered that he was a $141,519 winner.
Sanders, who is currently unemployed, matched five of six numbers, missing only the Mega number, and just barely at that. The Mega number on his ticket was 45, while the winning Mega number was 46. “I did a double take, and first tried to make sure that comma wasn’t a decimal point,” Sanders said in describing his first reaction.
The winning ticket was purchased at Vista Verde Liquor, which is located at 1855 North Kraemer Blvd. in the city of Placentia. The winning numbers were 31, 5, 17, 36, 56, and the Mega number was 46. No one matched all six numbers, and Friday’s jackpot is projected to be $36 million.
The California Lottery wants to remind winners to sign the back of their tickets, keep tickets in a safe place and contact Lottery officials or visit their local Lottery District Office (www.calottery.com/AboutUs/Locations) as soon as possible. Winners have 180 days from the date of the draw to claim prizes.
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.