LONACONING, Md. (AP) – The $ 731.1 million Powerball Award-winning ticket was sold in a previously fighting coal mining town that was the hometown of baseball legend Lefty Grove, he announced the Maryland Lottery Thursday
Coney Market, a convenience store in the city of Lonaconing, Allegany County, will receive a $ 100,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery to sell the ticket to the fifth largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
It had been more than four months since anyone had won the Powerball, which allowed the biggest prize in the game to be that big. A bigger Mega Millions prize will be on sale Friday night.
It may never be known who will collect the prize: Maryland is one of the states that allows winners to remain anonymous. But keeping quiet about these huge winds could be difficult if the local bought it. Lonaconing is a city of about 300 families that is far off the beaten track, with a poverty rate above 22%, well above the national average.
“We’re really happy for someone,” Richard Ravenscroft, the store’s owner, told The Associated Press by phone. “We still don’t know who he is.”
Coney Market, so named by what locals call their city, is housed in an independent building more than a century old, along Route 36 in Maryland. It’s a place where people can eat burgers and sandwiches underwater in a small seating area that attracts their usual number of customers.
Lonaconing, an old coal mining town, doesn’t have a lot of money. Ravenscroft said there is still a strip mine in the area, though it is running out of environmental issues, and that the remaining factory, a pulp and paper company, recently closed after a series of purchases . Another company came that plans to hire about 200 people to make something with wood chips, he said.
“I can’t wait to congratulate the person. I just hope that whoever wins it uses it wisely and that other people benefit from it, ”he said.
Ravenscroft, meanwhile, wants to expand the store’s kitchen and serve real meals, such as mashed potatoes and gravy. Maybe the bonus can help.
Lonaconing’s previous biggest winner was Robert Moses Grove, known as Lefty Grove, who pitched 17 seasons in the major leagues, nine with the Philadelphia Athletics and eight with the Red Sox. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947 and died in 1975.
The Powerball award came just a day after no one won the $ 970 million Mega Millions award, the third largest award in U.S. history.
The winning numbers in Wednesday night’s Powerball draw were: 40-53-60-68-69 and a Powerball of 22.
It was the first time both lottery prizes topped $ 700 million. The biggest prize was a $ 1.58 million Powerball prize won by three people in 2016.
No one had won any of the awards since mid-September, which allowed the awards to grow steadily for months. Such a long stretch without a winner is rare, but it also reflects the incredibly small odds of winning: 1 in 292.2 million for Powerball and 1 in 302.5 million for Mega Millions.
The prizes mentioned are for the winners who choose a life annuity option, paid for 30 years. Most of the winners opt for cash prizes, which for Mega Millions would be $ 716.3 million and $ 546.8 million for Wednesday’s Powerball. Following Powerball’s victory, the new prize has a cash value of $ 15 million.
These awards would also be subject to federal taxes and most states would also have a reduction.
Mega Millions and Powerball are played in 45 states, as well as in Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands. Powerball is also offered in Puerto Rico.