US resident wins world's biggest 640m dollars jackpot

London, Mar 31 (ANI): A ticket holder in Maryland, US has won the lottery of 640 million dollars, which is said to be the biggest jackpot in world history.

Maryland lottery officials announced that a winning ticket was purchased at a store in Baltimore County, though they had not identified the winner yet.

"This is truly remarkable and historic," the Telegraph quoted Maryland lottery director Stephen Martino as saying.

The country was engulfed by lottery mania as the clock ticked down to the drawing of the numbers for the Mega Millions in Atlanta on Friday.

The jackpot had mushroomed into the largest lottery in world history after the previous drawing three days earlier failed to produce a winner.

The odds of winning were at 176 million-to-one.

Some 625 million tickets were expected to have been sold, more than two for every American resident, even though statistically it was an extremely poor bet.

Long queues snaked out of corner stores as buyers lined up to try their chances. Many discussed how they would spend the money if they won.

Some aspired to buy a tropical island, while others wanted to give most of it to charity.

The jackpot jumped from 540 million dollars on Thursday to 640 million dollars on Friday as the hopeful went on a final-day ticket-buying spree.

The last minute rush was expected to drive the figures even higher. Facebook and Twitter were buzzing with discussions about what people would do with the winnings. (ANI)