Chateaguay Restaurant Owner Collects $250,000 Mega Millions Prize From April 27th Drawing

SCHENECTADY, NY (04/30/2010)(readMedia)--

Sandra Tallman of Chateaguay, Franklin County, has claimed a $250,000 cash prize for selecting five of six winning numbers in the Mega Millions drawing held on Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Tallman was the only New York Lottery player statewide to purchase a second-prize winning ticket for the April 27th drawing. The co-owner of the Ye Olde Halfway House restaurant on Route 374 in Chateaguay said winning six figures is nice, but she does think about the one that got away.

"I just needed the Mega Ball (to win the jackpot), but it wasn't meant to be," she said. The winning numbers for the April 27th, 2010 Mega Millions drawing were 23 37 41 50 55 and Mega Ball 6.

Tallman purchased her Quick Pick ticket on the day of the drawing at the restaurant she and her husband have owned for the past 13 years. "Something told me I might as well get one," she said. "You never know."

There were no jackpot winners in the April 27th Mega Millions drawing. The jackpot for the Friday, April 30th Mega Millions drawing is now $224,000,000. The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 176 million. The odds of winning the $250,000 second prize are about 1 in 4 million.

The current Mega Millions jackpot started rolling on March 16, 2010 when no one won the starting jackpot of $12,000,000. Since March 16, New York has paid out $1,750.000 in cash prizes to seven second prize winners.

If no one matches all five numbers plus the Mega Ball in the April 30th drawing, the jackpot will roll once again. The resulting jackpot amount will depend on ticket sales across the 35 Lottery jurisdictions that participate in the Mega Millions game, including Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and Washington D.C.

To play Mega Millions, players choose five numbers from a field of 1 to 56 plus one Mega Ball number from a separate field of 1 to 46. Tickets cost $1 per game and may be purchased up until 10:45 p.m. on the day of the drawing.

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, earning more than $39.3 billion in education support statewide since its' founding over 40 years ago. The Lottery contributed nearly $2.67 billion in fiscal year 2009-2010 to help support education in New York State, which was over 12 percent of total state education funding to local school districts.

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