Omaha Man Wins $250,000 Mega Millions® Prize

January 5, 2011 – Paul Gerber of Omaha won $250,000 playing Mega Millions® with Megaplier® from the Nebraska Lottery.

Gerber is the owner of Paul Gerber Auto Sales in Omaha. For the January 4 drawing, he purchased a quick pick Mega Millions ticket at Tobacco & Phones 4 Less, 7205 Lawndale Drive in Omaha. The ticket matched all five of the winning white ball numbers (4, 8, 15, 25, 47) for the $250,000 prize. This is the first $250,000 prize won in Nebraska since the Nebraska Lottery began offering the Mega Millions game in March 2010.

Gerber wasted no time in claiming his prize, arriving at Nebraska Lottery headquarters on Wednesday morning following the drawing. He told Nebraska Lottery officials that he had never played Mega Millions before, but decided to buy a ticket because of the estimated $355 million jackpot. “We were talking about the jackpot at work, so I gave our lot manager a few dollars and he went and bought some tickets,” said Gerber. He stated it was “unbelievable” to win the $250,000 prize. The odds of winning $250,000 playing Mega Millions are 1 in 3,904,701.

Gerber’s winning ticket was also very close to winning the Mega Millions jackpot. “I was only one number away,” said Gerber. The Mega Ball® number drawn was 42, and the Mega Ball number on Gerber’s ticket was 41. Gerber has no plans for his prize at this time.

Mega Millions with Megaplier is a multi-state jackpot game currently offered by 42 lotteries across the United States. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, which starts at $12 million and grows each drawing that it is not won, are 1 in 176 million, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 40.