Long Beach players win nothing in Vegas but return to California to claim Mega Million prize

Drawing Date: 10/10/2014

October 28, 2014 - Dennis Carrig and Karen Rheney had just returned from a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate a friend’s birthday. They had fun, but didn’t win anything. “I didn’t even gamble,” Carrig confessed. “Not one penny.” As it turns out he didn’t need to; they both were already big winners. Without even knowing it, they had matched five numbers in the Mega Millions draw from two days before (October 10), but missed the Mega number. They still won $1,263,024.

Rheney was actually the one who checked the ticket on Sunday night after they came home. “I checked the California Lottery’s website and then I told Dennis. He knew it was real because I was shaking!” she said. The roommates both claim to be very conservative and while they each plan to buy themselves a house, they will invest the rest. They aren’t planning anything extravagant, at least not yet.

Their ticket correctly matched the numbers 32, 59, 35, 2 and 50, missing only the Mega number of 3. That ticket was sold at the Albertsons located at 6235 East Springs Street in Long Beach (Los Angeles County). Albertson’s will receive a retailer bonus of one half of one percent of the total prize – more than $6,000 – just for selling the winning ticket.