DETROIT — Four people in a suburban Detroit lottery club won a $1.05 billion Mega Millions lottery jackpot and will share $557 million after taxes, officials said Friday.
The winners claimed their prize nearly two months after the Jan. 22 drawing and chose the immediate lump sum option, the Michigan Lottery said. After taxes, the lump sum of $776 million was reduced to about $557 million, officials said.
“This kind of money will impact the families of our club members for generations to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it forward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan."
The names of the four winners were not released. They have a lottery club in Oakland County called Wolverine FLL Club and had the single jackpot-winning ticket from that drawing, officials said.
“This kind of money will impact the families of our club members for generations to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it forward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan,” attorney Kurt Panouses said on behalf of the winners.
The $1.05 billion jackpot was the largest in Michigan Lottery history and the third largest in the United States. Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The winning ticket was purchased almost as an afterthought at a Kroger grocery store in the Detroit suburb of Novi.
“A club member saw a sign that the jackpot was up to $1 billion and remembered that they hadn’t bought their tickets yet, so they pulled into the Kroger,” Panouses said. “When you play, of course, you dream of winning, but the reality of it has been incredible.”
Kroger said it would donate its $50,000 commission to the Food Bank Council of Michigan.
There was much public speculation immediately after the drawing that a group of Novi teachers had won. David Ascher, principal at Novi Woods Elementary School, shot down the rumors.
“Everyone showed up for work today, which was really good,” Escher said two days after the drawing. “I bought them all donuts today, which seemed to help, too.”
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