A single ticket bought in a Chicago suburb beat the odds to win a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot. According to megamillions.com, there was a jackpot winning ticket in Friday night’s drawing that was purchased at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines. Winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14. “We are thrilled to witness one of the largest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history,” Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, the current Chief Executive Officer of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement on the lottery’s website. “We can’t wait to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!” The jackpot was the third largest lottery prize in the country. It got so big because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15th. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner. Lottery officials had estimated the winnings at $1.28 billion, but revised the figure to $1.337 billion on Saturday. The total prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, payable annually for 29 years. Most winners choose the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was about $780.5 million. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million. According to the Illinois Lottery, the store that sold the ticket is also a pretty big winner. he will receive half a million dollars just for selling the ticket. An employee at the Speedway store who answered the phone but declined to give his name said the store has not been officially notified that it sold the winning ticket and learned of it from reporters calling for comment. Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries. Illinois is among the states where winners of more than $250,000 can choose not to reveal their names, and Illinois Lottery spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said the vast majority of those winners do just that. Even lottery officials may not know who won for a while because winners don’t have to show up right away. And the winning ticket may have been bought by a group of people. “We won’t know if it’s an individual or the lottery until the winner comes forward to claim their prize,” National Mega Millions spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb said. As of Saturday afternoon, there had been no winner, according to Mazur. Emily Irwin, managing director, Advice & Planning, at Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management, said Friday that the winner should consider keeping a low profile and resisting a spending spree that everyone knows the winner cannot afford. “This is not the time to start calling everyone you know, saying, ‘Hey, I have a big secret. Can you hold it?” Irwin said. This is necessary so that we are not overwhelmed by requests for money. “There are scammers and others who follow big winners,” he said, admitting that sudden wealth can put a lottery winner in physical danger. “Privacy equals security,” he said. One thing the winner must do right away is sign the ticket. This is because if the ticket is not signed then it is not actually yours. If the winner loses an unsigned ticket and another person finds it and signs it, the ticket is now theirs. Irwin suggests a step further to survive a legal battle over ownership. “Take a Polaroid that you’re holding and (put it) in a safe or somewhere else safe,” he said. Pratik Patel, head of Family Wealth Strategies at the BMO Family Office in Chicago, said the winner should work with a financial planner to map out their future. “I would run a Monte Carlo simulation of the market,” Patel said, explaining that this is an analysis of a winner’s annual income and income from various investments. “What you’re doing is using analytics to inform your spending.” Frizzi-Babb agrees that talking to a financial planner is a good idea. “I would suggest you do it before you even set foot in a lottery office,” he said. One expert who has worked with past lottery winners says winners should avoid going to the lottery office, instead sending a lawyer or financial adviser to maintain their anonymity — if lottery officials allow it. “There are going to be people who will do everything they can to figure out who the winner is,” said Kim Kamin, who has been an attorney for 17 years and now teaches estate planning at Northwestern University’s law school. “Many eyes will be watching.” There’s also a question no one wants to answer right now: What happens to money when you die? Irwin said don’t leave it unanswered. you must take steps to ensure that most of your wealth goes to your beneficiaries and not to the government. “You need a manager who specializes in that and understands that world,” Patel said. “Someone making $60,000 a year might need a certain type of professional manager and might want to switch to someone who makes super wealth.” Whatever the winner does, it’s important to do it slowly. “You can absolutely indulge, but let’s be smart about it,” Patel said. “It’s a lot of money, but until you figure out what you can afford, there are still limitations.” For example, he said, consider chartering a private jet before taking the plunge and buying one. “You might be interested in owning your favorite basketball team,” he warned, “but maybe that’s not a good idea if it drains all your money.”