Two tickets claim record lottery jackpot

At least two people can claim a share of a record near-€300m US lottery jackpot, and there could be more as California is still checking its Mega Millions results, officials announced today.

One winning ticket was traced to a liquor store in New Jersey, and another to a market in Georgia, lottery representatives in the two states said today.

California’s results were slowed by the high volume of sales, and state lottery spokesman Rob McAndrews said it would be at least mid-morning local time before he knew for sure if there were more winning tickets out there.

The other nine states in which the tickets are sold had no jackpot winners, said Mardele Cohen of the Ohio Lottery, which compiles all the states’ information.

Last night’s draw was held in New York’s Times Square in ABC’s television studio rather than Atlanta after brisk sales pushed what had been an estimated $355m (€254.9m) jackpot estimate to a record $370m (€281.6m).

The largest previous multistate lottery jackpot was $365m (€277.7m) in 2006.