Man from tiny town called Luck wins $15.1 million lottery
A man from Luck – a tiny town in Wisconsin – just claimed a huge state lottery prize: $15.1 million, officials with the Wisconsin Lottery announced this week.
Mark Cunningham played Megabucks, a Wisconsin-only lotto game, at a local grocery store on January 4. On Monday, he claimed his prize at the Wisconsin Lottery office in Madison, lottery officials said in a news release Wednesday.
"Dreams really do come true," Cunningham said, according to the news release, adding that he won an additional $2 on another ticket in the same drawing.
A single Megabucks ticket is $1. The $15.1 million prize is the largest Megabucks jackpot since its $22.2 million prize in 2015. The Jan. 4 drawing resulted in 14,162 total winners that had won at least $2, lottery officials said.
Paul Wondra, a manager of Wayne's Food Plus, where Cunningham bought his winning tickets, said in a news release his store has received a lot of phone calls since.
"I was told by the Lottery people that, now you're going to be that mecca," Wondra said. "You sold a big ticket. You're going to be the place to go. So far, it's holding true."
Wayne's Food Plus received $100,000 for selling the winning ticket, lotto officials said. The odds of winning a Megabucks jackpot are 1 in 6,991,908 while the odds of winning $2 is 1 in 29.
Luck is about two square miles and has a population of about 1,191, according to the Census Reporter.
Meanwhile, nationwide, tickets are being purchased for the Mega Millions drawing Friday. The prize is a whopping $1.35 billion, the second largest prize in the game's history.
