mega millions

You can't win if you don't buy a lottery ticket.

Here is what is known about the winners of the third-highest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.

A little over a month ago, $1.33 billion, the third-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, was won by someone who purchased their Mega Millions ticket right here in Illinois at a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines. When you look at that kind of money, you wonder why the winner has not announced themselves to lottery officials yet.

If you happened to buy a lottery ticket from a certain Illinois convenience store, you might be nearly a billionaire now and not even now it.

The answer is convoluted but we've broken it down for you and tossed in a few more bits of useful info.

We saw the fifth highest jackpot in Illinois history last week. No winner means that we will get the third highest jackpot in Illinois history this week.

MegaMillions had to suspend payouts after its TV host called a wrong number, the jackpot was worth $86M.

After reading about Clark Gas, a Loves Park gas station selling a winning Lucky Day Lotto ticket worth $400,000 a couple days back, I thought it might be fun to see who's won the big money and how much they walked away with (pre-tax).

As I look at an email I just got from the Illinois Lottery, I see that tonight's Powerball drawing has about $730 million reasons for you to consider playing. As the Illinois Lottery's Jessica Perez explains, "This is the fourth largest Powerball prize in game history and the sixth highest jackpot in U.S. lottery history."

Holy s***, I can't believe it happened. I just won a nearly-billion-dollar jackpot. What do I do now? And, what do I do first? Here's comes some expect advice.