[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”2px|0px|8px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Featured Image caption” _builder_version=”3.19.17″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px”]<\/p>\n
The anonymous $877 million Jackpot winner claimed their record winnings at the South Carolina Education Lottery on Monday.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.19.17″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”]<\/p>\n
One South Carolina Education Lottery winner is officially $877 million richer as of Tuesday morning,<\/strong> and the state of South Carolina is $61 million richer after the anonymous winner claimed their Mega Millions ticket Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is the largest single jackpot winning payout in U.S. history. The original jackpot was worth $1.5 billion,<\/strong> but the winner took a lump sum of $877 million in cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n The winning ticket was purchased on October 23rd at a KC Mart convenience store in Simpsonville, a full<\/span><\/span> five months ago. The ticket needed to be claimed by April or the money would be refunded to states with participating lotteries.<\/p>\n South Carolina allows lottery winners to remain anonymous,<\/strong> and Holli Armstrong of the South Carolina Education Lottery said many winners take that route as a safety precaution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is obviously about safety. They probably just want to live their lives as normal as possible,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n An overwhelming majority want to stay anonymous, according to Armstrong.<\/p>\n Armstrong said she is is unsure why the winner took so long to claim the winnings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really don\u2019t know why it took them so long,” she said. “We did encourage the winner to seek advice from a trusted financial advisor before claiming. It is a life changing amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n It is also possible the winner is not from the state and was passing through when they won then waited for their next available time to go and claim the winnings.<\/p>\n The $61 million in tax revenue for South Carolina created another windfall that legislators are still deciding how to budget.\u00a0 Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, is excited to see what the $61 million awarded to the state will go towards.<\/p>\n “Here’s what I would like to see it go to: state employee pay. The $61 million will allow us to give state employees an additional 2%,” she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Some people across the state are also dreaming of how they would spend the winnings if they ever hit the jackpot.\u00a0<\/p>\n University of South Carolina senior Michael Shawd from Dover, Delaware, thought of his parents before himself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so tough because $877 million is so much money,” he said. “I think, I guess the first thing I\u2019d do is set my parents up for life with a dream house. I owe them everything.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 1″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.19.17″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0305LotteryG1.jpg”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 2″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.19.17″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0305LotteryG2.jpg”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An anonymous person officially claimed their record breaking Mega Millions lottery ticket Monday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":18818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18769"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18870,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18769\/revisions\/18870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}