Man from tiny town called Luck wins $15.1 million lottery

A man from Luck – a tiny town in Wisconsin – just claimed a huge state lottery prize: $15.1 million, officials with the Wisconsin Lottery announced this week. 

Mark Cunningham played Megabucks, a Wisconsin-only lotto game, at a local grocery store on January 4. On Monday, he claimed his prize at the Wisconsin Lottery office in Madison, lottery officials said in a news release Wednesday. 

"Dreams really do come true," Cunningham said, according to the news release, adding that he won an additional $2 on another ticket in the same drawing. 

A single Megabucks ticket is $1. The $15.1 million prize is the largest Megabucks jackpot since its $22.2 million prize in 2015. The Jan. 4 drawing resulted in 14,162 total winners that had won at least $2, lottery officials said.

Paul Wondra, a manager of Wayne's Food Plus, where Cunningham bought his winning tickets, said in a news release his store has received a lot of phone calls since. 

"I was told by the Lottery people that, now you're going to be that mecca," Wondra said. "You sold a big ticket. You're going to be the place to go. So far, it's holding true."

Wayne's Food Plus received $100,000 for selling the winning ticket, lotto officials said. The odds of winning a Megabucks jackpot are 1 in 6,991,908 while the odds of winning $2 is 1 in 29. 

Luck is about two square miles and has a population of about 1,191, according to the Census Reporter. 

Meanwhile, nationwide, tickets are being purchased for the Mega Millions drawing Friday. The prize is a whopping $1.35 billion, the second largest prize in the game's history. 

Christopher Brito

Christopher Brito is a social media manager and trending content writer for CBS News.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.