Massachusetts resident Dhruba Thapa of Hyannis got some great news in early January. His ticket for the Massachusetts Lottery instant game, $10,000,000 Mega Money, made him the first winner of the game’s top prize.
The Massachusetts Lottery announced Thapa’s winning ticket on January 11. He opted to collect his prize money as a one-time payment, which will total $6,500,000 before taxes.
Winners of the $10 million prize in this Mega Money instant game can either collect a one-time payment or they can opt to collect $500K per year over a 20-year period.
Massachusetts Lottery retailer who sold the ticket is also a winner
Thapa bought his winning ticket at the Ocean Street Market, located at 50 Ocean Street in Hyannis. The MA Lottery confirmed that the store will earn a $50,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
According to the terms of the MA Lottery retailer agreement, participating retailers don’t just receive a bonus on the sales of winning tickets. They also receive a 5% commission on the sale of all Lottery products.
About Massachusetts Lottery’s $10,000,000 Mega Money
According to the MA Lottery website, the popular instant ticket game has a total of 11 prize tiers. Prize amounts range from $30 to $10 million. The odds of winning the $30 prize are one in 6.25, while the odds of winning the $10 million prize are one in 5,040,000.
The next biggest prize in the Mega Money instant game is the $1 million prize with winning odds of one in 2,016,000.
How to play $10,000,000 Mega Money
The current Mega Money promotion started on August 3, 2021, and has an estimated payout of 80.4%. Each instant ticket costs $20.
Players can match any of their 20 numbers to any of the eight winning numbers to win the prize shown for that number.
There’s also the chance that players will see a symbol indicating “2X,” “5X,” “10X,” “20X,” or “100X” on their ticket. If that’s the case, the player will multiply their prize by that number.
Players could also see a “Moneybag” symbol on their ticket, which means they win all of the 20 prizes that are shown.
If players see a “Star” in the FAST $50 BONUS area, they automatically win $50.
If players see a “Bill” in the FAST $100 BONUS area, they automatically win $100.
What do the Massachusetts Lottery winners do with all that cash?
Big lottery winners don’t always know what they’re going to do with that prize money. As for Thapa, though, he plans to put a portion of his winnings toward his daughter’s medical school education.
Creating a better life for their children is a common goal of many MA Lottery winners. After all, a child’s future can be made much easier with a stack of cash.
Just one month prior to Thapa’s big prize win, the Assonet winner of the MA State Lottery “Diamond Millions” instant ticket game, Antonio Almeida, said he planned to set aside a portion of his winnings into a savings account for his children.
