Berlin Man Wins $3.4 Million Mega Millions Jackpot

By Barbara Heins

What was in an East Berlin man's wallet?

A winning Mega Millions lottery ticket.

On May 6, Vincent McGivney of East Berlin walked into the CT Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill and claimed the $3.4 million Lotto jackpot for the Feb. 18, drawing. It was a colossal win for McGivney and an astonishing occurrence for Berlin Convenience & Deli in East Berlin, the lottery retailer who sold the winning ticket.

“It’s the third time in just over a year that we’ve sold a ticket worth at least a million dollars,” said Naeem Uddin, owner of Berlin Convenience & Deli.  “After we sold the first couple million dollar wins, I said, ‘We’re on a roll!’  Now that we’ve sold a Lotto jackpot ticket, who knows what could be next!”

McGivney’s Lotto “Quick Pick” ticket contained the numbers 6-21-25-27-32-42, a perfect match to the winning numbers drawn Tuesday, Feb. 18. In total, 4,682 winning Lotto tickets were sold for that date, with prizes ranging from $2 to $3.4 million.

CT’s Lotto jackpot is payable as a 21-year annuity or a one-time cash lump-sum. McGivney elected to claim the jackpot’s cash lump-sum prize for $2,734,496 (before taxes).

A Lottery retailer since 2008, Berlin Convenience & Deli, located at 831 Mill St., is developing quite a reputation for itself as an incredibly lucky location.

In addition to McGivney’s Lotto jackpot winning ticket; they sold Richard Sousa of Southington a $1,000,000 prize winning “Powerball” Quick Pick ticket for the December 19, 2012 drawing and Karol Thompson of Middletown a $1,000,000 “Mega Millions” Quick Pick ticket for the April 26, 2013 draw.

“We couldn’t be happier for Mr. McGivney.  It feels great that another one of our customers was a big winner for the CT Lottery,” Uddin said.

Thanks to McGivney’s lucky lottery purchase, Berlin Convenience & Deli is also a winner—they will receive a $10,000 bonus from the CT Lottery for selling the Lotto jackpot ticket.

The overall chance of winning a prize in Lotto is 1 in 39.3.  The chance of winning the jackpot is 1 in approximately 7.1 million.

Editor's note: This article originally was published by Berlin Patch.