Bennington Shell sells $1.4M ticket, still unclaimed

Posted Monday, November 12, 2018 6:33 pm

BENNINGTON — One lucky lottery player is the winner of a $1.4 million jackpot, thanks to a ticket sold at the Bennington Shell on Northside Drive.

Vermont Lottery officials announced Sunday that the Tri-State Megabucks jackpot ticket was sold for the Nov. 10 drawing, but the ticket holder has not yet come forward to claim the prize.

The ticket matched five out of five winning numbers: 02-09-14-27-36, and the Megaball number, 02. According to the Vermont Lottery, the odds of hitting the a jackpot-winning combination are 1 in 4,496,388.

Bennington Shell store manager Alisha Prouty said she did not know that the store had sold the winning ticket until she began receiving calls this morning. The Vermont Lottery offices were closed Monday for Veterans Day, so she was unable to reach out for more information.

Prouty also said the Bennington Shell will not receive the monetary bonus that is customary for stores selling a lottery ticket of this amount; it will go to the corporate headquarters.

This is the second Megabucks jackpot won in Vermont in the past month. In October, a ticket worth $11.5 million was sold in Colchester.

According to the Vermont Lottery website, winners of prizes over $5,000 must claim the money at the Vermont Lottery Headquarters in Berlin. These large prizes are also subject to a federal income tax withholding of at least 25 percent and a Vermont state income tax of at least 6 percent.

"It's very exciting that we have two jackpot wins within exactly a month of each other," Jeff Cavender, director of marketing and sales for the Vermont Lottery, said in a press release sent Sunday. "This Tri-State game offers the best odds, it's our original jackpot game, and it's usually local winners."

Christie Wisniewski can be reached at cwisniewski@benningtonbanner.com and at 802-447-7567, ext. 111.