Maine Winner of $1.35 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot Comes Forward Through an LLC

A person has claimed the $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot won at a Maine gas station last month, the Maine State Lottery revealed Wednesday.

They didn’t share the person’s name — they accepted the state’s first ever Mega Millions jackpot win, from Friday, Jan. 13, through a limited liability company called LaKoma Island Investments.

They chose the pre-tax cash payment of $723,564,144, rather than the annuity over 30 years.

“The winner is thoughtfully considering the best uses of the life-changing prize,” a spokesperson for the unidentified winner said.

The winning numbers were 61, 30, 45, 46, and 43, with a Megaball of 14.

The Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages & Lottery Operations’ deputy director, Michael Boardman, congratulated the winner, adding the department wishes “them all the best as they consider how to best use their recent winnings.”

While Maine is not one of the states that lets lottery winners stay anonymous, the state lottery confirmed Wednesday that they will only be identified as the company.

The prize was the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history.

The winning ticket was purchased at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine, earning the store a $50,000 bonus and putting it at the center of speculation over the winner’s identity for more than a month.

“What we’re doing here in our small town – we’re keeping our eye out for an odd limousine,” Hometown owner Fred Cotreau said the week after the winning ticket was sold. “It’s not the prom season, so if we see a limousine in a driveway somewhere, we’re gonna go knockin’.”

This is the second largest Mega Million jackpot in history and the first time a winning ticket has been sold in Maine.

Lebanon borders New Hampshire, near Portsmouth, and has about 6,500 residents. The town had a bank balance of about $5 million in mid-2019, according to the most recent bank audit shared on the town website. Last month’s lottery prize was about 270 times bigger than that.