Mega Millions jackpot grows to $135 million

Seriously, I asked this other day, but who was the lucky person from Smyrna who hit the Fantasy 5 jackpot Monday night for $310,820?!! Got some to share??

I won the Fantasy 5 once. I bought the ticket at an East Cobb Chevron station on Sept. 30, 1998. I pinned it to a bulletin board and forgot about it.

I was working for the now defunct Atlanta Sports Weekly at the time. I remember going down to Miami in late January for Super Bowl XXXIII. You know, the only one the Falcons have ever played in. They were filming "Any Given Sunday" in South Florida at the time and I met Cameron Diaz. She said I was funny.

KISS performed before the game and Cher sang the National Anthem. But the Birds’ Eugene Robinson pulled his stunt and the Falcons blew it against the Broncos. I got back to Atlanta the next day sunburned, hungover and gimping around on a sprained ankle.

That’s when the publishers told me that there were no more funds and that they had to let me go. Bummed out, I went home and made a vodka drink. The next day, with nothing to do, I pulled that lottery ticket off the board. At the time, you couldn’t check numbers online. So I called the number and then read along as the computer-generated voice called out my five digits.

They give you 180 days to cash those winning tickets in before they go void. When I made the call, I was on day No. 151. The winning ticket was worth around $64,000 and after taxes, I took home about 43K. Good times.

Anyway, one lucky person could end up with $5.1 million a year for the next 26 years or a single payment of approximately $99 million if they choose the winning numbers in tonight's Mega Millions drawing.

The jackpot has grown to $135 million after no one matched all the winning numbers during the Dec. 13 drawing. Since Nov. 4, the jackpot has rolled 12 times.

For $1, players can try for the jackpot. Proceeds from the lottery benefit education in Georgia. Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned $12.9 billion to the state for programs including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. 

The next drawing is scheduled for tonight at 11 p.m.

What would you do if you won tonight's jackpot? If you tell us, I'll share with you how I blew the $43,000. Or maybe I didn't blow it...