$1 million Mega Millions ticket sold in Portsmouth: Are you the winner?

PORTSMOUTH — For the second straight summer, a million-dollar lottery ticket has been sold in the city.

The New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet location off the Route 1 Bypass sold the $1 million ticket in Tuesday’s estimated $555 million Mega Millions draw.

Mike Smith, manager of the Portsmouth traffic circle liquor store location, is rooting for a local resident to emerge as the million-dollar winner.

“It’s pretty exciting that we were able to score a winning ticket like that,” he said. “It’s a great advertisement for the state.”

An official with the state lottery reported that as of Wednesday, nobody had yet to step forward to claim the winnings. “All is quiet,” said Maura McCann, marketing director for the New Hampshire Lottery.

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McCann said this week’s winner is the first million-dollar ticket sold in New Hampshire this year.

Portsmouth state liquor store rewarded

McCann noted the local New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet receives a $10,000 prize for selling the winning ticket.

“I am pretty excited for our staff,” Smith said. “It’s been a very incredible summer with the amount of business we’ve done, and we’ve been short-staffed. My staff here has been amazing so if they can get a little (pay) bump or a little bonus like that, I’d be very happy for them. That’d be great.”

New Hampshire Liquor Commission chairperson Joseph Mollica said in a preqpred statement more than 12 million customers make purchases at New Hampshire's Liquor and Wine Outlet stores every year.

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Mollica said the commission is “thrilled” to hear that one of those customers is walking away with a hefty lottery prize.

“We hope they bought a bottle of champagne, because they have one million reasons to celebrate!” he said.

What we know about the $1 million ticket

The winning Mega Millions ticket completed the game’s “Match 5” objective, where lottery ticket holders must have their ticket’s numbers match the five ping pong balls drawn. Each “Match 5” winner receives a $1 million prize before taxes. The odds of matching the first five numbers, according to Mega Millions, is roughly one in 12.6 million.

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The first five winning numbers for Tuesday’s jackpot draw were 2, 31, 32, 37 and 70.

Winning “Match 5” tickets were also sold in Arizona, California and North Carolina on Tuesday.

To win the $555 million Mega Millions prize, a ticket has to match the first five numbers and the gold “Mega Ball,” which was 25 on Tuesday, with odds one in nearly 302.6 million.

The last million-dollar ticket sold in Portsmouth

In July 2021, Cabot Street Market of Portsmouth sold a $1 million Powerball ticket, the first time the store’s owner had ever sold a lottery ticket that fetched higher than $20,000.

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Draws for the Mega Millions are held every Tuesday and Friday. The next draw will be held on Friday, July 22 at 11 p.m., with the jackpot soaring to an estimated $630 million.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth liquor store sold $1 million Mega Millions ticket