Mega Millions winner - at least three of them - were out of sight. Losers, who could number 100 million, said a lot on Saturday to lose the jackpot in the world's largest lottery and their dreams of wealth colossal disappointment.
Journalists attacked shops in Illinois and Maryland, as well as lottery officials in Kansas, proudly announced that they had sold the winning ticket in the world $ 640 million jackpot Mega million records. The winners will receive $ 213 million before taxes. Three other ticket holders have become millionaires.
But on the street, the Internet and not in stores, where winners bought tickets, the Americans grumbled about the hopes, and then disappeared. And they thought they had done with the money.
"What do I do with this worthless lottery ticket today?" Laurel Ashton Brooks of Greensboro, North Carolina, said on Twitter.
As the jackpot grows with every hour on Thursday and Friday, the Americans had tickets snapped up dreaming about leaving jobs, debt repayment, building hospitals, the purchase of the island. On Saturday, they took to Twitter and Facebook, to mourn their losses, the edge of possibility for millions of people.
"I knew when I bought the ticket, I would not win. But I did it anyway," said Shawn Flaherty, a tester of video games in New York. "The concept of" if "has a bit of money with me."
Even U.S. President Barack Obama presidential campaign tapped into widespread frustration lottery. He sent an e-mail to raise funds with a "Jackpot," which began: ".. Yes, we do not so that we always"
All told, Americans spent $ 1.5 billion for the opportunity to hit the jackpot, which is a lump sum $ 462 million and nearly 347 million U.S. dollars after the federal tax. With the chances of a jackpot on the 176 million it would cost $ 176 million to redeem all of the combinations. In this case, the strategy will receive a $ 171 million less if your state does not want all the taxes.
Winner of Illinois used the Quick Pick - automatic dialing - select the winning numbers in the store in the small town of Red Bud, south of St. Louis, Illinois Lottery spokesman Mike Lang said. The winning numbers were purchased at 7-Eleven stores in Milford Mill, Maryland, just north of Baltimore, and somewhere in the northern state of Kansas.
"It's just incredible. Everyone wants to know who they are," said Denise Metzger, director of the MotoMart where the winning ticket was sold in Illinois.
"All day yesterday I was selling tickets, and I was hoping that someone will win the Red Bud. Never in my wildest dreams I thought. I'm just thrilled," said Metzger, whose store will receive $ 500,000 for selling the winning ticket, lottery officials.
Paramedic Dan Parrott left the store with $ 5 income after checking rooms at a cost of $ 40 tickets. He will not pay for a new house, new car and new ambulances, which decided that the jackpot will help him to buy in 3700 that the farming community about 40 miles south of St. Louis.
"I would like to see all this money, but with all this money comes responsibility," he said outside the store. "But it would still be great."
Sitzes James left the MotoMart where his control of the six pieces failed. "I bought them in the right place," he shrugged. "I was just not the right numbers."
"I thought for years I'll be doing with all that money," said Sitzes, 70. He had to pay into the house, invest the rest and give her a small shop coating.
In Maryland, camera, hit the 7-Eleven, where the winning ticket was purchased by the state. Manager repeatedly harassed said: "No," told journalists pressed for more detailed information that customers are pushed through a crowd of media over morning coffee.
Nyeri Murphy, holding two tickets to scratch, she said, but usually plays Powerball resulted in a neighboring county to buy $ 70 worth of tickets for Mega Millions this week. "I would have bought here," she said.
Maryland does not require the lottery winners will be determined; Mega Millions winner can claim the prize anonymously. Shop gets a bonus of $ 100,000 for selling the winning ticket was purchased on Friday evening.
The third winning ticket was purchased in North Kansas City, but no further information will be published in the Kansas Lottery until the winner comes forward, the representative of the Kara S. Sloan-Ramos said. Location of Kansas, who sold the ticket will receive $ 10,000.
No winner has contacted the agency on Saturday morning, the Kansas Lottery Director Dennis Wilson. "We want to meet with the winner, but we want to tell them, go to the back of the ticket and fix it."
Kansas law allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, if the winners are determined in Illinois.
Winning numbers for the draw on Friday night were 02-04-23-38-46 and the Mega Ball 23.
Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett said the last time a ticket from the state won the jackpot nationwide was in 2008 when he won a ticket for $ 24 million.
"We are very happy," she said. "We are bound and excited."
The owner of the winning ticket in Maryland have 182 days to go and get the win. Winners in Kansas and Illinois to one year, but if the winner of Illinois wants to be paid in a lump sum, they must report within 60 days, said Lang.
Although only three tickets matched all the winning numbers, the jackpot was a millionaire at least three other winners, and gave a boon to more than 100 others. Three ticket holders won $ 1 million each, and 158 won $ 250,000 in accordance with the first five numbers drawn, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, Iowa.
According to the jackpot eclipses the previous record $ 390 million, which was divided in 2007, two winners who purchased tickets in Georgia and New Jersey.
For some, dreams were beautiful. Kathy Kapczynski bought his first lottery ticket with the neighbors in a gas station in Washington, DC. The duty was to show him how to buy.
"We went a little bit more experience than 'if'," she said.
On Saturday morning, Kapczynski, manager of visitor services in the Newseum, which was in New York on vacation and left her $ 6 tickets at home behind.
It remains unclear if she won.
