EAST MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Lottery Commission officials on Friday morning were still waiting to hear from the lucky person who purchased the winning lottery ticket at Middlebury Beef Supply for a Megabucks jackpot of $2.45 million that was announced on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Whomever won Wednesday’s jackpot will have the option of receiving the $2.45 million (before taxes) prize spread out over 25 years, or in a lump sum amounting to roughly $1.28 million (again, before taxes).
And Vermont Beef will share in the wealth. The store will receive 1 percent of the prize value, or roughly $24,500. In order for that to happen, the winner will have to step forward within a year. After that, the prize would be considered expired and unclaimed and would be reabsorbed into the state’s lottery system, which benefits the Vermont Education Fund.
Kirk Hansen, assistant manager at Middlebury Beef in East Middlebury, said the lottery commission notified the store it had sold the winning ticket soon after the drawing. The winner had not approached the store as of Friday morning.
Lottery ticket-buyers have been finding a lot of luck in Addison County. The last Vermont win in a Megabucks jackpot drawing was in May of 2013. That winning ticket for $1.65 million was purchased at the Maplefields store in New Haven, noted Jeff Cavender, director of marketing and sales for the Vermont Lottery Commission.
The Megabucks lottery is available in the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].