Thursday, March 08, 2007

Jackpot !

Two lottery ticket holders in the US are to share $390m (£202m), the largest lottery jackpot ever in the country.

Lorry driver Ed Nabors from Georgia said he was "still numb" as he claimed his prize of $116,557,083. After state taxes are paid, he will get $80m.

The other winning ticket was bought at a liquor store in Woodbine, New Jersey, but the holder has not come forward.

The US government is the other big winner, receiving one-third of the jackpot in taxes - $130m.

Mr Nabors said he was at work in his truck in Dalton, Georgia, when he checked his Mega Millions lottery ticket numbers in a newspaper.

"I just went numb... I just sat there and looked at both the paper and the ticket, you know," he told a news conference after picking up his winnings.

He said he planned to go fishing and to buy his daughter a house.

The huge jackpot sparked a ticket-buying frenzy in the US, with one million tickets sold in one hour in New York state alone on Tuesday.

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