Winning $1.34 billion Mega Millions jackpot bought in Des Plaines: Here's what winner should do

Someone beat the odds and won the $1.34 billion Mega Millions jackpot.

The winning ticket was purchased at a Speedway on Touhy Avenue in Des Plaines, the Illinois lottery website said.

The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.

"We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history," Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, currently serving as lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery's website. "We're eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!"

The Speedway station that sold the winning lottery ticket also will receive a cash award of $500,000, according to Illinois Lottery.

"I think it's great," Des Plaines Alderwoman Patsy Smith said of the winning ticket being sold at a local gas station. "Congratulations to the person who got the winning ticket. ... You can do a lot of things with that money."

Lottery officials may not know for a while who won because winners don't have to come forward straight away. And the winning ticket may have been bought by a group of people.

"We won't know whether it's an individual or it's a lottery pool until the winner comes forward to claim their prize," national Mega Millions spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb said.

The Illinois State Lottery on Saturday said it had not yet heard from the winner.

"We don't know whether or not they're aware they've won this incredible prize," Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays said. "So we're telling all of our players, check your tickets."

The winning numbers are 13-36-45-57-67, with a MegaBall of 14.

An employee at the Des Plaines Speedway gas station directed any requests for comment to Speedway's corporate office. A call to the corporate office was not immediately returned Saturday.

The jackpot was the nation's third-largest lottery prize and the largest prize ever won in Illinois. It grew so large because no one had matched the game's six selected numbers since April 15. That's 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.

Lottery officials had estimated the winning take at $1.28 billion, but revised the number up to $1.337 billion on Saturday.

That prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night's drawing was an estimated $747.2 million.

The jackpot winner has 12 months to claim the prize but has only 60 days from the date of the draw to chose the cash option or annual payments.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.

Now the Mega Millions pot resets to $20 million.

Illinois is among the states where winners of more than $250,000 can choose to not reveal their names, and Illinois Lottery spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said the vast majority of those winners do just that.

Emily Irwin, managing director, Advice & Planning, at Wells Fargo's Wealth & Investment Management, said Friday that the winner should consider keeping a low profile and resist going on an eyebrow-raising spending spree that everyone knows the winner cannot afford.

"This is not the time to start calling everybody you know, saying, 'Hey, I have a big secret. Can you keep it?'" Irwin said, because you'd want to avoid being inundated with requests for money.

"There are scammers and others who follow big winners," she said, admitting that sudden wealth can put a lottery winner in physical danger.

"Privacy equals safety," she said.

One thing the winner must do immediately is sign the ticket. That's because if the ticket hasn't been signed then it really isn't yours. If the winner loses an unsigned ticket and another person finds it and signs it, the ticket now belongs to that person.

Irwin suggests a step further to survive a legal battle over ownership.

"Take a Polaroid of you holding it and (put) it in a safe-deposit box or somewhere else safe," she said.

Pratik Patel, the head of Family Wealth Strategies at BMO Family Office in Chicago, said the winner should work with a financial planner to map out the person's future.

"I would run a Monte Carlo market simulation," Patel said, explaining that this is an analysis of what a winner's annual income might be and what the proceeds from various investments might be. "What you're doing is using analytics to inform your spending."

Frizzi-Babb agrees that talking to a financial planner is a good idea.

"I would suggest that you do that before you even set foot in a lottery office," she said.

One expert who has worked with past lottery winners, says the winners should avoid going to the lottery office altogether, instead sending an attorney or financial adviser to preserve their anonymity - if lottery officials allow.

"There are going to be people doing everything they can to figure out who the winner is," said Kim Kamin, who was a trusts and estates attorney for 17 years and now teaches estate planning at Northwestern University's law school. "There are going to be many eyes watching."

There is also a question nobody wants to answer at that particular time: What happens to the money when you die?

Irwin said don't leave this unanswered; you must take action to ensure the bulk of your estate goes to your beneficiaries rather than the government.

"You need a manager who specializes in this and understands this world," said Patel. "Someone making $60,000 a year might need a certain type of professional manager, and they may want to switch to someone who does ultra wealth."

Whatever the winner does, it is important to do it slowly.

"You can absolutely indulge, but let's be smart about it," Patel said. "It's a lot of money, but until you figure out what you can afford, there are still limitations."

For example, he said, consider chartering a private jet before diving in and buying one.

"You may be interested in owning your favorite basketball team," he warned, "but maybe that isn't a good idea if it uses up all your money."

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.

Another Illinois lottery player won $1 million in Friday's Mega Millions drawing. That ticket was sold at SRB Food Mart in Berkeley. The food mart will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

It's the fourth time an Illinois lottery player has won a million-dollar prize in the Mega Million drawing this year.

• Daily Herald staff writer Alicia Fabbre contributed to this report.