Winning $266 million Mega Millions ticket sold at barbecue restaurant in Pico Rivera

Lottery officials wait for $266M winner to show up

LOS ANGELES — A Mega Millions ticket sold in California could be worth $266 million to the ticket holder. It is also worth a cool million to the owner of the barbecue restaurant where it was sold.

The winning ticket matched all six numbers drawn in Tuesday’s multistate game — 9, 21, 31, 36 and 43 with 8 as the Mega number.

The ticket was sold at L & L Hawaiian BBQ in Pico Rivera. Owner Danny He and his family will get $1 million, the cap on lottery bonuses in California, said lottery spokeswoman Cathy Doyle Johnston in Sacramento. A man who answered the phone at the restaurant southeast of Los Angeles said it was too busy and too exciting for anyone to talk on the phone.

There’s a lot of buzz and several stories about reported winners, Johnston said.

“But no one has come into the office to claim it. Until we have someone come in who has that ticket, we do not have an official winner,” Johnston said.

The winner has a year to turn in the ticket, then 60 days to tell lottery officials how he or she wants the money.

It can be paid in 26 equal payments of $10.2 million or in a lump sum of about $165 million, minus federal taxes, Johnston said.

The $266 million jackpot was the eighth-largest in the history of the game, which began in 2002 and is now played in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

It was the second-largest to be hit in California. Five months after California joined the multistate game in June 2005, a ticket bought by seven people won $315 million.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever was $390 million on March 6, 2007, shared by winners in Dalton, Ga., and New Jersey.

California had a $134 million winner in March, as well, Johnston said, adding: “We are kind of on a roll.”

The last Mega Millions ticket to match all six numbers was sold in Illinois for the March 12 drawing. It was worth $20 million.

Across the country Tuesday night, 28 tickets had five numbers but didn’t have the Mega number. The seven sold in California are worth $179,428 each, while tickets sold in other states will pay $250,000. California law requires payoffs in lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel scale.

The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 175,711,536, lottery officials said.

The next drawing will be Friday and the jackpot will be $12 million.