Record lottery winner located

Someone in Michigan is this morning, very happy.

The winning ticket in the Big Game lottery was sold in the state, officials have announced, thus dashing the hopes of millions whose frenzied buying in seven states had pushed the jackpot to a record $350 million.

A store is in Shelby Township near Utica, about 20 miles north of Detroit sold the winning ticket - the winning numbers were 1, 2, 12, 33, 37 and Big Money Ball 4. To win, a ticket has to match the five numbers and the Big Money Ball.

It was not immediately known whether there were other winning tickets. While the drawing is held in Atlanta, the results are handled by individual state lotteries.

The odds of having all five winning numbers and the Big Money Ball were one in more than 76 million.

The Big Game jackpot easily topped the previous American record, a $295.7 million Powerball jackpot split by 13 machinists in Westerville, Ohio, two years ago.

After taxes, based on federal and Georgia state taxes, the Big Game payout on a single winning ticket is either $8.9 million a year for 26 years, or a one-time payment of $114 million. The state tax varies among the seven states in which tickets are sold - Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia.

The excitement surrounding the game had people lined up at petrol stations and convenience stores for days. In Virginia, so many people tried to access the lottery's Web site that the server crashed.

Some people in Georgia and Massachusetts almost didn't get a chance to try to pick the lucky numbers because damaged phone lines shut down hundreds of lottery terminals.