Coast woman has played the same lottery numbers for years. It paid off times a million.
A Harrison County woman has been playing her same lucky numbers for years and this time they paid off big.
The woman, who chose not to be identified, claimed her $1 million winnings Monday morning after picking the winning numbers in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing.
She bought the winning ticket at Robinwood One Stop at 18447 U.S. 49 in Saucier and didn’t realize she’d won until she scanned her ticket Sunday, Mississippi Lottery Corporation said.
The Lottery Corporation said the woman used Quick Pick to choose her numbers when Mega Millions tickets debuted in the state in January 2020 and played those same numbers each week.
She matched all five white ball winning numbers — 3, 16, 25, 44 and 55 — but didn’t have the Mega Ball of 13.
The local player did not purchase the Megaplier for an additional $1, which would have tripled her win to $3 million.
A ticket sold in California had all the white balls plus the Mega Ball to win Friday’s jackpot of $421 million, or $289.5 million in cash.
In addition to the ticket sold in Harrison County, lottery players in New York and Texas also matched the five white balls to win $1 million. One ticket sold in Ohio won $3 million because the player had the optional Megaplier.
Gambling is a popular past-time in Mississippi, both in playing the lottery or gambling at Coast casinos. Gambling foot traffic was up at five casino sites on the Coast in 2021, data shows.
