Single Ticket Wins $141M California Lottery

A winning ticket sold in California's $141 million lottery jackpot has yet to be claimed.

The prize is the biggest single-state lottery jackpot in U.S. history, officials said Sunday.

The "SuperLotto Plus" ticket was purchased in San Jose, but the identity of the holder will not be known until the ticket is redeemed. The winner could opt to take the money in 26 annual payments or a lump sum of about $70 million.

The winning numbers were 3-22-43-44-45 with Meganumber 8. The winning Xtra Reward number was 43667954, which carries a $50,000 prize.

Alex Wang, 56, who owns the liquor store where the winning ticket was sold, will receive about $705,000 — or one-half of 1 percent of the jackpot — if the ticket is confirmed, said lottery spokesman Sid Ramirez.

"I couldn't believe it, but it looks like it's true," Wang said. Wang, who moved to the U.S. from Taiwan in 1970, has owned the liquor store for 27 years.

He has no immediate plans for the money, although he said he may buy a new home.

"First, I'll probably put it in the bank."

Ramirez and other lottery officials were at Wang's store Sunday to tie up some legal loose ends.

"As part of our security system that's been in place ever since the lottery began, we take the (lottery ticket) machine to make sure there has been no tampering or malfunctions of sorts," Ramirez said.

He said lottery officials will return to Wang's store in three to four weeks with his check. Officials will then give Wang special banners to hang at his store saying "this store made a million dollar winner."

Ramirez said this winning jackpot raised $80 million for public schools in the state.

If no one comes forward to claim the record-breaking jackpot, it will also be handed over to public education.

"The sales pace is much higher than we thought it would be," said California Lottery spokeswoman Norma Minas.

About $43 million in lottery tickets were sold on Saturday alone, with 84,000 tickets sold every minute in the last hours before the 7:58 p.m. drawing — this despite the fact that the chance of winning was one in 41 million.

Before the current jackpot, the largest single-state prize was $118.8 million — also in California, in 1991. The overall record is held by the seven-state Big Game lottery, with a prize of $363 million last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.