CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One Mega Millions ticket purchased in West Virginia, ahead of Tuesday’s night drawing for a more than $648 million jackpot, is worth $1 million.
On Wednesday afternoon, West Virginia Lottery officials confirmed one Mega Millions ticket, matching five numbers, but not the Mega Ball, was sold at the 7-11 in Belle in Kanawha County.
It was one of 20 $1 million tickets sold across the United States.
“Playing Mega Millions is not just about chasing that (big) jackpot, because the new prize structure has guaranteed a $1 million prize on that match five feature,” said Nikki Orcutt, marketing director for the West Virginia Lottery.
“We were lucky enough to have one winning ticket, here in West Virginia, be that $1 million winner.”
As of late Wednesday, the winner had not yet claimed the prize.
The winning Mega Millions numbers for Tuesday’s drawing were 8, 14, 17, 20, 39, Mega Ball 7.
Two tickets, one sold in San Jose, Calif., and another sold in Atlanta, matched all of those numbers. The two ticketholders will share in the Mega Millions prize that continued to climb above $636 million leading up to Tuesday night’s drawing.
It was already the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history before it grew to an estimated $648 milllion, an amount rivaling the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot that was split among three winning tickets in March 2012.
Orcutt said ticket sales, though, were not as strong in West Virginia in the period leading up to this week’s drawing compared with the same time frame ahead of the 2012 drawing.
Between Friday and Tuesday, she said about $1.7 million worth of Mega Millions tickets were sold in West Virginia, compared with $3.9 million in the days before the 2012 drawing.
“That shows you that we’ve had some decline in the amount of play on the Mega Millions game in general, but, specifically for this draw, we were anticipating that we would have a lot more interest,” said Orcutt.
The Mega Millions jackpot will be $15 million for the next drawing Friday night.